UK PM urge to prevent Saudi executions

A group of UK MPs have written to Prime Minister Theresa May asking her to intervene in the case of 14 Saudi prisoners believed to be facing imminent execution, the media reported.

The MPs, in their letter on Thursday, asked the Prime Minister to "personally urge" Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to halt the executions, reports the BBC.

"We also ask that you take urgent steps to confirm that UK assistance played no role in these individuals' conviction under Saudi Arabia's anti-cyber crime law," it said.

The letter, signed by Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake and former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, called for a "full account to Parliament of any and all UK training for Saudi police and criminal justice institutions".

Human rights group Reprieve said the prisoners include a disabled man and a student who was arrested, aged 17, on his way to study in the US.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said the men confessed to crimes under torture and were put on death row after more than two-and-a-half years of pre-trial detention, the BBC reported.

--IANS

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