HUMAN RIGHTS campaigners attacked the government yesterday after it announced that it would proceed with a bid to provide support to the Saudi Arabian prisons system, which plans to crucify a prisoner convicted as a child.

Ministers had to correct the parliamentary record after wrongly claiming they could not drop the bid due to the risk of “financial penalties.”

The only reason now given for continuing with the bid is that “withdrawing at this late stage would be detrimental to (the British government’s) wider interests.”

It emerged this week that Saudi Arabia has dismissed the final appeal of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who was arrested aged 17 and sentenced to “death by crucifixion” for alleged offences relating to anti-government protests in 2012.

Human rights charity Reprieve director Maya Foa said: “The UK should have nothing to do with a so-called justice system responsible for atrocities such as this.

“It is extremely worrying to see the British government abdicating its basic human rights values in the interests of cosying up to the Saudis.”