Sudan: Capital Punishment

Mr. Drew
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the number of people executed in Sudan in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Meg Munn
Our Embassy in Khartoum receives occasional reports about executions in Sudan from non-governmental organisations such as the Sudanese Organisation Against Torture (SO AT). SO AT reported that five individuals were executed on 24 February as punishment for murder. We do not, however, have figures relating to the past five years.

Through the EU-Sudan Human Rights Dialogue the UK lobbies the Government of Sudan to suspend the death penalty with a view to abolishing it. The Sudanese Government has told us that it had suspended the use of the death penalty for pregnant or lactating women. We understand that the sentence would be carried out once the child reached the age of two.