Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Egyptian counterpart on the release of the photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid known otherwise as Shawkan.

Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, and other UK officials have raised Shawkan’s case with the Egyptian authorities on a number of occasions. It is no secret we want to see more political freedoms and better protection of human rights in Egypt, and the Foreign Secretary and I have consistently raised these concerns with our Egyptian counterparts. The UK also raised concerns about human rights in Egypt at the UN Human Rights Council, and our national statement in September 2017 specifically expressed concerns about media restrictions in Egypt.