UK lef t oil-rich Saudi out of drive to halt death penalty
SAUDI Arabia was omitted from an official UK campaign against the death penalty despite the number of executions it carries out. The oil-rich state was the only major country with the death penalty left off a Whitehall list to be challenged by diplomats, it emerged last night. Those given a greater priority than Saudi Arabia, which carried out 158 executions l ast year, included Barbados, Singapore and Jordan which passed fewer t han t en death sentences between them in 2014.
The r evelation comes as a dangerous rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran deepened last night over the execution of a prominent Muslim cleric.
Nimr al-Nimr, a Shia imam, was one of 47 convicts executed by beheading or firing squad at 12 separate Saudi prisons last weekend.
The fallout threatens to destabilise the entire Middle East after Iran, which mainly adheres to the Shia branch of Islam, said Sunnirun Saudi would face ‘divine vengeance’. Saudi Arabia cut its diplomatic and trade ties with Tehran yesterday and suspended all commercial flights.
Its allies Bahrain and Sudan also severed diplomatic ties with Iran, and the United Arab Emirates recalled its ambassador. Lord Ashdown warned yesterday that the deepening confrontation between Sunni and Shia Muslim states would ‘pose a far greater danger’ to the west than Islamic State.
The White House has urged restraint and Russia offered to mediate in the developing crisis between the two rival branches of Islam.
Britain’s Middle East minister Tobias Ellwood said yesterday that the Government had expressed its ‘disappointment’ at the mass executions to the Saudi authorities.
But it has emerged that the Saudi regime was left out of the 20-page Foreign Office document setting out a five-year strategy to reduce the use of executions around the world.
The UK strategy, which was written in 2011, sets out a list of what it describes as priority countries where British diplomats would be encouraged to ‘proactively drive forward’ and make progress towards the UK’s ultimate goal of abolishing the death penalty over five years.
It names China, Iran, Belarus, the US and the Caribbean as the countries where most effort should be focused, but goes on to list another 25 ‘where posts should also be working towards’ reducing the use of the death penalty.
Saudi Arabia does not appear on either list despite having one of the worst human rights records in the Middle East. Maya Foa, of human rights organisation Reprieve, said it was a ‘shocking’ omission.
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said Britain’s relationship with Riyadh is sycophantic, and ministers must take a harder position on Saudi abuses to help preserve the Syrian peace talks in Vienna.
David Cameron is under pressure to explain what judicial co-operation the Government still has with Riyadh, which is seen as a western ally in the battle against terrorism. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said yesterday there were still ‘broad areas of co-operation’.
Last night a Foreign Office spokesman said the five-year strategy document was ‘a general policy guide from 2011, rather than a case by case list of countries where the death penalty is applied’.
She added: ‘A full list of countries of concern was published in March 2015 in the Annual Human Rights Report, that includes Saudi Arabia.’
Comment – Page 16
‘A shocking omission’