Egypt

Lord Chidgey Excerpts

Thursday 27th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

To begin with the noble Lord’s final point, he is of course quite right that openness and having a free, fair and fully pluralist style of elections are something that not only Her Majesty’s Government want to see but, as he has acknowledged, something that the UN is pursuing, as is the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton, in her capacity at the European Union. I reiterate once again that the UK Government remain deeply concerned about sentencing including, most recently, the sentencing to three years in prison of the democracy and human rights activists Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma and Mohamed Adel. The UK believes that the freedom to protest peacefully is vital in any democracy and calls on Egypt’s interim leaders to ensure that they uphold all Egypt’s international human rights obligations. The Foreign Secretary spoke to Foreign Minister Fahmy on 7 January and raised various concerns over Egypt, such as the arrest of human rights activists and journalists and the violence, including fatalities, at protests. I am sure representations will continue during what we hope will be free and fair elections later this year.

[Lord Chidgey (LD)]

My Lords, the Egyptian Ministry of Justice is on record as saying that most of the 350 people originally sentenced to death were actually tried in absentia and that if they turn up in court they would be entitled to retrials. However, the Egyptian Government are insisting that the death sentences were handed down only “after careful study”. Have the Government advised the Egyptian authorities that, along with the UN human rights commissioner and 16 Egyptian human rights groups, we view these actions as being in breach of international human rights law and intolerable in a 21st-century democracy?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My noble friend sums up sentiments which are, I think, widely shared across the House. The UK of course opposes the death penalty. We believe it undermines human dignity and there is no evidence that it works as a deterrent. If an error is made, it is of course irreversible. We review the death penalty strategy each year, including priority countries where necessary. Our views have been well documented and continue to be shared across the board particularly, in this context, with the Egyptian authorities.