Prime Minister David Cameron says he will put pressure on the Sri Lankan president over the unsolved case of a murdered Rochdale Red Cross worker.
Responding to a question by Simon Danczuk MP in the House of Commons, Mr Cameron said he'll raise the Rochdale MP's fears of a cover-up when he meets within the head of the Sri Lankan government next month.
The ongoing battle to secure justice for Khuram Shaikh, who was murdered while on holiday in Sri Lanka in 2011, was raised during Prime Minister’s Questions on Thursday.
Simon Danczuk asked:
“My constituent Khuram Shaikh was brutally murdered and his girlfriend gang-raped while on holiday in Sri Lanka nearly two years ago. Justice continues to be denied and the key suspect is a close ally of the Sri Lankan President. Is the Prime Minister comfortable meeting this President at the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit next month, and what will he say to him?”
In response, the Prime Minister said he was going to the Summit because he was “a big believer in the Commonwealth”, but would not “hold back from being very clear about those aspects of the human rights record in Sri Lanka that we are not happy with.”
This included the murder of Khuram Shaikh and the failure to deliver justice to his family. He asked for further details of Khuram’s case and promised to raise it with the President at the Summit.
Speaking afterwards, Simon said it was important that the Prime Minister challenged Sri Lankan officials on their failure to deliver justice for a British tourist.
“I remain very much of the view that Sri Lankan politicians are trying to cover this case up to protect a close ally of the President,” he said, “and that’s why I do not believe Sri Lanka should be hosting this summit. Like the Prime Minister I am a believer in the Commonwealth, but we need to see Commonwealth values like the rule of law upheld and Sri Lanka continually fails to do this.
“Khuram was hugely respected in Rochdale and around the world for the dangerous work he carried out for the Red Cross and he was killed in cowardly circumstances by a drunken mob on holiday. His family is still overcome with grief at this terrible loss and they rightly want to see justice done and his killers put behind bars.”
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