The UK High Court has accused Business Secretary of refusing to ban us execution drug

[h3rm35]

UK Court seeks lethal drug export ban
Fri Nov 19, 2010 11:16AM

The UK High Court has accused Business Secretary Vince Cable of irrationally refusing to ban the export of a drug to the US that had been used for executions there.


A High Court Judge was told that based on strong evidence the US Judiciary had been using British-made sodium thiopental shipments in lethal injection executions, the daily Morning Star reported.

Leigh Day Solicitors and legal charity Reprieve introduced the case at the court and called for a ban on the export of the drug.

They argued that if the government fails to enforce a ban it would be in violation of its obligations under the international human rights conventions.

Nathalie Lieven QC is a lawyer defending death row prisoners Edmund Zagorski and Ralph Baze.

“Unless an export ban was imposed, further supplies from the UK could be used to execute her clients and many other prisoners,” she said.

On November one, Vince Cable declined to place export controls on sodium thiopental, saying that it would place a disproportionate burden on UK businesses wishing to export the drug to the US.

He argued such a step was not justified because US states could always get the drug from elsewhere in the world.

But, Lieven countered that “all Mr Cable's arguments were fatally flawed and urged the judge to rule the minister was acting contrary to the statutory purpose of the export control legislation”.

She said it was irrational and unlawful for him to refuse when executions were a clear violation of fundamental human rights the UK says it seeks to protect, especially when the government has reaffirmed its commitment to the global abolition of the death penalty.

"The use of sodium thiopental to execute people is as serious a breach of human rights as it is possible to envisage," Lieven said.