The UK Government is not doing enough to act against "brutal and sustained torture" of prisoners in Saudi Arabia, according to the all-party Parliamentary Human Rights Group.

Chairwoman Ann Clwyd said: "It is bad form to refer to the public beheadings and stonings to death... to point out that these things happen in a country that enjoys none of the human rights, civil liberties and democracy we demand for ourselves is even less welcome."

Robin Cook: ' Our foreign policy must have an ethical dimension'

When Robin Cook became Foreign Secretary in May he said: "We will put human rights at the heart of our foreign policy", but according to Ms Clwyd this statement "appears not to apply in the Gulf".

The report concludes: "The response of European countries and the United States... has been to place greater emphasis on political and economic considerations rather than the defence of international standards for the protection of human rights."

It claims that executions had increased from 15 in 1990 to 191 in 1995 and detainees can be beaten, sexually assaulted and subjected to electric shocks while staying in insect infected cells.

Deborah Parry: British nurse claimed she was tortured

Foreign nationals are kept locked up and not allowed to communicate with consular representatives, says the report, and claims made last year by British nurses that they were tortured into false confessions were "not unusual".

Ann Clwyd said that trials were not conducted in accordance with internationally accepted judicial standards. "There is no right to legal advice, no limit to the time a detainee may be held incommunicado...in a system where torture is endemic, this may lead to miscarriages of justice, for which, however, there is no remedy."

Though the Foreign Office has said it will assist Britons where there is "clear evidence" of ill-treatment, the report says that there is "disturbing evidence that the UK has consistently failed to protect and assist its nationals adequately when they become victims of torture in Saudi Arabia and may even have acquiesced in providing the regime with the instruments it uses to commit torture".

Baroness Symonds: 'representations have been made' to Saudi government

On Monday, however, the government denied taking a soft line with Saudi Arabia. Junior Foreign Office minister Baroness Symons said representations had been made to the Saudi authorities. She said the issue had been handled in a "delicate" manner but this did not mean it was not put robustly.

Saudi Arabia is one of Britain's major trading partners and British businesses in the country have consistently urged London to take a cautious line on human rights lest it harm their prospects.
 

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