All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Bahrain

House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA 020 7219 6052

Mr Bernie Ecclestone Formula One Formula One Management Ltd. 6 Princes Gate Knightsbridge London SW7 1QJ 15th April 2013

Dear Mr Ecclestone, As we did last year, we are writing again to request that you cancel the Bahrain Formula One Championship which if goes ahead, is likely to attract as much negative publicity as it did last year. Since April 2012, many more people including children have lost their lives and the whole country exists in fear and intimidation. Villages are terrorised daily and tear gas canisters thrown into peoples homes causing the suffocation and death of many, including unborn children. Leading human rights activists such as Nabeel Rajab have been imprisoned for merely speaking out against a dictatorship of a ruling family. Children, medical staff, men and women languish in jail on the whims of the AlKhalifa when no crime has been committed and child deaths are the norm. In September 2012, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee criticised the UK governments decision to oppose cancellation, finding it difficult to discern any consistency of logic behind the Governments policy. In February 2013, Amnesty International gave an assessment of the process of reform in its Freedom has a price report. They wrote: true justice remains elusive for victims of human rights abuses and the right of people to freely express their views continues to be trampled on. Tens of prisoners of conscience, including leading opposition figures, are being denied their freedom and excluded from the

national dialogue on reconciliation process, while restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly continue unabated On 28th February 2013, a delegation to Bahrain from Human Rights Watch issued a statement that said: Bahrains rulers have made no progress on key reform processes, failing to release unjustly imprisoned activists or to hold to account high-level officials responsible for torture. Last years championship was held under conditions of martial law. Three hundred protesters were arrested, some spending months in jail. Salah Abbas Habib was killed during the weekend of the race. He was shot by the security forces and his body showed marks of torture. I think most democratic-minded people would be appalled if you allowed the Bahrain leg of the Formula One Championship to go ahead amidst the most atrocious human rights violations.

Yours sincerely,

Andy Slaughter MP, Chair

The APPG for Democracy in Bahrain: Rushanara Ali, MP David Amess, MP, Vice Chair Lord Avebury Tom Brake, MP Guto Bebb, MP Katy Clark, MP Ann Clwyd, MP Jeremy Corbyn, MP Baroness Falkner Kate Green, MP Shabana Mahmood, MP Michael Meacher, MP Patrick Mercer, MP Matthew Offord, MP Eric Ollerenshaw, MP Yasmin Quereshi, MP Margaret Ritchie, MP Andy Slaughter, MP, Chair Baroness Tonge Paul Uppal, MP