Saudi Arabia and the execution of homosexuals

16.1.2002

ORAL QUESTION H-0033/02
for Question Time at the part-session in February 2002
pursuant to Rule 43 of the Rules of Procedure
by Carmen Cerdeira Morterero
to the Commission

On 12 January 2002 three men were decapitated in Saudi Arabia after being convicted by the government on the grounds of being homosexual. The Saudi Ministry of the Interior said that they were sentenced to death for ‘sodomy, same-sex marriage and incitement to paedophilia’, and stressed that they were recidivists.

 

Does the Commission intend to take steps to condemn this execution? Will it take any measures against the Saudi Government? Does it intend to tell the government of Saudi Arabia that the execution constitutes a grave violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, since it infringes the fundamental rights to life, dignity, equality and personal freedom and is contrary to the basic principles and values of the European Union?

 

 

Tabled: 16.01.2002

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