Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the government of Bahrain on the case of Nabeel Rajab in that country.

The UK Government has frank discussions with the Government of Bahrain about human rights concerns both in public and in private. We urge the Bahraini authorities to respect the rights of all its citizens, and call on them to protect the universal rights of freedom of expression. The former Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) spoke to the Bahraini Foreign Minister, Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa on 14 June about his case. An official from our Embassy in Bahrain has attended all his hearings to date, including most recently on 5 September. We will continue to monitor his case closely and raise concerns with the Government of Bahrain.