UK Business Secretary Vince Cable given ultimatum over execution drugs

Legal action charity Reprieve has given Business Secretary Vince Cable 72 hours to ban the export of execution drugs to the US or face legal action.

The charity's director Clive Stafford Smith wrote to Mr Cable yesterday giving him until close of business on December 30 to end the export of sodium thiopenthal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride - all used in the lethal injection process - to the US by British firms.

Reprieve argued that the government's failure to prevent the exports is in breach of European human rights law and Britain's own publicly stated opposition to the death penalty.

The charity has already brought one successful legal action against the government over is failure to place a moratorium on the export of sodium thiopenthal.

A shipment of the British manufactured drug has already been used in the execution of at least one death row inmate, Jeffrey Landrigan in Arizona.

As a result of the action, Mr Cable was forced to ban the export of the chemical but his delayed response meant that a large shipment was despatched to California before the ban came into effect.

The shipment, which it is estimated would be enough to execute more than 80 prisoners in the US, has yet to be released by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Reprieve argued that an urgent intervention from the Business Secretary could still prevent the drug being shipped to its destination.

The charity also reiterated calls for Mr Cable to impose a ban on the export of both pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

Mr Stafford Smith said: "Vince Cable has had a difficult few weeks, but it is never too late to refocus on what he entered government to do. We are asking that he devote half an hour to helping to prevent scores of executions.

"Since he apparently spent 20 hours rehearsing his foxtrot for Strictly Come Dancing, this does not seem too much to ask.

"The Foreign Office is struggling to help us prevent the execution of British nationals in the US, at the same time as Mr Cable sits on his hands and allows the export of British drugs that will kill those same prisoners."

"Mr Cable's department can hardly claim to be in a coalition, when he is acting in opposition.”

He said one British firm had cynically capitalised on the demand by marking the price of the drugs up 3,500 per cent and "making obscene blood money selling them to America's executioners."

Reprieve has also given notice to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso that the commission had the legal 60 days in which to impose an EU-wide ban on the export of the three drugs or face litigation in the European Court of Human Rights.

Source: Morning Star, December 29, 2010