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A COMMITTEE of MPs has announced it is to re-examine the issue of whether British funding for counter-narcotics operations contributes to increasing the number of executions overseas.
The home affairs select committee was responding to concerns repeatedly expressed by legal action charity Reprieve.
The website of committee chairman Keith Vaz, a Labour MP, says that he “shares the concerns that have been raised about the UK’s financial and operational support for overseas drug operations.”
The statement adds that Mr Vaz will “recommend when the home affairs select committee next meets in September that they look again” at the issue.
He also confirmed that he would be writing to Home Secretary Theresa May on this subject.
Reprieve has warned that British support for counter-narcotics operations in countries which impose the death penalty for non-violent drugs offences is increasing the number of death sentences.
Britain has provided millions of pounds’ worth of support to such programmes in Pakistan, which has executed over 200 people since December 2014.
However, ministers have refused to provide a clear answer on what measures, if any, have been taken to ensure that public money does not contribute to the execution of people convicted of drugs offences.
Reprieve death penalty team director Maya Foa welcomed Mr Vaz’s commitment to ‘“look again” at the issue.
She said: “The home affairs committee should now commit to a full inquiry into the lethal consequences of this disastrous policy, and finally bring an end to Britain’s shameful complicity in capital punishment.”
