Egypt

House of Lords written question – answered at on 8 April 2014.

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Photo of Lord Hylton Lord Hylton Crossbench

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent estimate they have made of the number of Egyptians in detention in that country; and whether they will make representations to the government of Egypt to encourage the swift completion of the judicial process in those cases.

Photo of Baroness Warsi Baroness Warsi Senior Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) (Jointly with the Department for Communities and Local Government), Senior Minister of State (Department for Communities and Local Government) (Faith and Communities) (also in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

The 2013 US State Department Human Rights report suggests that there are at least 62,000 Egyptian prisoners overall, including as many as 2,000 pre-trial detainees. In August 2013 the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), called for the release of all political detainees, unless there were criminal charges to be made against them, and emphasised that it is vital that any charges are not politically motivated. In his statement on 24 March he urged the Egyptian authorities to ensure full respect for defendants’ rights.

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