HC Deb 08 July 1890 vol 346 cc1115-6
MR. LABOUCHERE

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has seen the Egyptian Official Gazette, of 16th June, in which it is reported that a Decree against brigandage has been submitted by the Khedival Government to the Legislative Council, in which the following punishments against brigands are decreed, in conformity, "as set forth in the Preamble of the Decree," with the dispositions of the sacred law (rite Hanapte) in vogue in all countries depending on the Ottoman Empire: amputation of the right hand and left foot followed by capital punishment; amputation and crucifixion; amputation, capital punishment, and crucifixion; capital punishment and crucifixion; crucifixion alone; capital punishment alone; and that the penalty of crucifixion is thus defined in the Decree— Two parallel and transversal bars are attached to a post at some distance from each other. The post thus furnished is fixed perpendicularly in the ground. The arms of the victim are then stretched out on the upper bar and the feet on the lower bar. Thus attached, his left breast is pierced with a lance, which is worked round in the wound until death takes place; and whether Her Majesty's Government will use its influence with the Khedival Government to prevent the infliction of such punishments?

*SIR J. FERGUSSON

The Decree proposed by the Khedival Government contained no such provisions, but the majority of the elected Members of the Legislative Council voted for an Amendment declaring that the law of the Koran prescribed them as the proper penalties for brigandage. This vote does not bind the Egyptian Government, and there is not the slightest chance of their adopting such measures.