Former British Detainees In Saudi Arabia

EDM number 351 in 2007-08, proposed by Linda Riordan on 21/11/2007.
Categorised under the topics of Administration of justice, Human rights and Middle East.

That this House believes that James Lee, Sandy Mitchell, Dr William Samson and Les Walker were tortured into falsely confessing to the murder of Christopher Rodway by the Saudi Arabian authorities and were wrongly convicted of the crime in 2001; notes that Amnesty International has reported that `justice cannot be done nor seen to be done' in Saudi Arabia; is concerned that the four men have struggled to find full-time employment because of their murder convictions; strongly regrets that the UK Government backed the Saudi regime in the House of Lords by arguing that its officials were protected by state immunity while simultaneously claiming that it `condemns torture in all its forms and works to eradicate it wherever it occurs'; firmly believes that the UK Government has a duty to defend its citizens when they have been mistreated by a foreign dictatorship which has such a blatant disregard for human rights; and calls upon the Government to support moves to clear the names of the four men.

This motion has been signed by a total of 44 MPs.