UK government today refused to answer questions from MPs about its controversial police training programme with Saudi Arabia, the international human rights organization Reprieve said.

UK government today refused to answer questions from MPs about its controversial police training programme with Saudi Arabia, the international human rights organization Reprieve said.

The subject was debated at Westminster following revelations from the BBC and international human rights organization Reprieve that Britain’s College of Policing is teaching the Saudi Arabian interior ministry high-tech forensic skills – which could be used to identify individuals who later go on to be tortured and sentenced to death.

FCO minister David Lidington said that the project is designed to support UK foreign policy in the Gulf.

Lidington also claimed that: “The government’s judgment remains that a strong relationship with Saudi Arabia helps us to keep this country both prosperous and safe and that it is through working with Saudi Arabia that we can encourage the changes we wish to see in that country.”

British police are currently teaching their Saudi counterparts hi-tech skills such as decryption and mobile phone analysis, even though these techniques could lead to opposition activists being arrested and executed.

Ali al-Nimr was just 17 years old when he was sentenced to death for attending non-violent protests in 2012 and allegedly using his Blackberry phone to invite friends to join the demonstrations. At trial the prosecution requested execution by “crucifixion”.

Commenting, Maya Foa, director of Reprieve’s death penalty team, said: “By training Saudi officers in this way, the UK government risks becoming complicit in the arrest, torture and execution of juveniles like Ali, Dawoud and Abdullah – all of whom were arrested as children for alleged involvement in protests."