Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will (a) raise the case of Noura Hussein Hammad in the Republic of the Sudan with the office of the EU High Representative on Foreign and Security Policy, and (b) support the representations made to Sudan through that office.

We are working closely with EU and other partners on Noura's case. On the 15 May we released a statement alongside other EU Heads of Mission to make clear our firm opposition to the use of the death penalty under any circumstances, and to recall the principle of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that marriage should be entered into only with the free and full consent of spouses.

Our Ambassador to Sudan raised our deep concern about Noura Hussein's case at a senior level with the Government of Sudan on 17 June, and made clear our strong opposition to the use of the death penalty, child marriage and forced marriage. I also conveyed our concerns in a call to the Sudanese Foreign Minister on 12 June, stressing the importance of a fair appeal to the sentence imposed by the courts. We will continue to raise the case at a high level with the Government of Sudan.