23 October 2014 :

Reprieve, the charity that campaigns against the death penalty, said Britain risks being “complicit in a gross human rights abuse” if drug mules caught by a force trained and equipped by Britain are executed.
A one-month stay of execution granted to Pakistani prisoner Shoaib Sarwar expires on 27 October, leaving Sarwar at imminent risk of death. The hanging, if it takes place, would be Pakistan’s first execution since 2012, and would throw into question the lives of at least 112 drug offenders currently on Pakistan’s death row, including a number of British nationals.
While the UK government’s Strategy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty lists Pakistan as a ‘priority country’, the UK has given more than £12 million to support anti-drug operations in Pakistan, where specialist drug courts maintain a conviction rate of more than 92 per cent, and can hand down a death sentence to anyone convicted of possession of more than 1kg of drugs.
UK funding has covered training for officers in Pakistan’s Anti-Narcotics Force as well as intelligence and equipment, while ministers have failed to take steps to prevent the aid leading to death sentences.
In correspondence with legal charity Reprieve, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has confirmed that the UK has ended counter-narcotics funding to Iran due to “the exact same concerns” as Denmark; the latter country redirected funding in 2013 after concluding donations were “leading to executions”. On Pakistan, however, Clegg said the UK would continue its funding, despite being “acutely aware that this assistance must not compromise our clear opposition to the use of capital punishment in all circumstances, including for drug offences”.
Reprieve has asked the British Government to make its aid conditional on an end to the death penalty for drug offences – consistent with its position on similar aid to Iran – and to accept responsibility for the link between its support for drug operations and the application of the death penalty, including for British nationals.
“British aid for executions breaches the Government’s own human rights rules and makes a mockery of its commitment to fight capital punishment abroad,” Reprieve’s Death Penalty Team Director Maya Foa said.