Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he has had discussions with his counterpart in Egypt on the detention of Tawfik Ghanem.
We have not raised Mr Ghanem's specific case directly with the Egyptians, but we regularly raise pre-trial detention cases, restrictions on media freedom and detentions of political activists with Egypt, both in London and Cairo. Lord [Tariq] Ahmad of Wimbledon discussed human rights with the Egyptian Ambassador on 20 February and with Foreign Minister Shoukry on 28 March. The Foreign Secretary raised human rights with FM Shoukry on 29 April.
We also raise human rights issues multilaterally through our Human Rights Council Item 4 Statements and detail our concerns through our Annual Human Rights and Development Reports.