British Foreign Office to reproach Swaziland over mistreatment of British citizen

According to a representative of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the FCO will be “making representations” towards the Swazi regime over the “mistreatment” of a British foreign national during the Global Week of Action in Swaziland. “The Foreign and Commonwealth Office takes all allegations of mistreatment against British nationals very seriously and will raise the allegations with the relevant authority in the country concerned,” the representative wrote on 16 September in a reply to an email sent to them raising the issues of the mistreatment of a British citizen on 7 September in Manzini. A delegation from Danish organisation Africa Contact, including two Danish citizens and one British, Peter Kenworthy, were detained by police, beaten, threatened, and denied any legal representation, food, drink, or visits to the toilet during a five hour ordeal at Manzini Regional Police Headquarters. The representative also stated that they would ask “our High Commission in Pretoria to raise the allegations with the Swaziland authorities”, and insisted that they would “ask for an investigation to be conducted and the perpetrator(s) brought to justice”. Finally, the FCO representative mentioned that the British High Commission in Swaziland “may contact the Danish Embassy in Pretoria to inform them of our intention to raise the allegations.”

UPDATE: 13 October 2010

According to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, “a standard format of a diplomatic letter” has been sent to the Swazi regime, including the statement of the allegations made against its police forces as well as a “request for the allegations to be investigated and the results of the investigation to be conveyed to the BHC [British High Commission]“. An official response has not been received as of yet.

UPDATE: 7 December 2010

The British High Commission in Pretoria has not received a response to its diplomatic note, sent to the Swaziland authorities raising the issue of the "mistreatment" of Peter Kenworthy. According to a representative of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, they would usually now send "a follow-up note repeating our request". Since an official from the High Commission is scheduled to visit Swaziland in January, however, the representative said that they "will instead raise the allegations directly with Swazi government officials in January".

UPDATE: 10 September 2011

“The UK is deeply concerned about the continuing decline in good
governance and human rights in Swaziland, and the lack of progress
towards democracy,” the United Kingdom’s Foreign & Commonwealth
Office’s Africa Directorate says in a letter from September 7. The
letter was addressed to the many people who had complained about
Swaziland’s absolute monarch, King Mswat III’s, invitation to the
British royal wedding in April 2011, and specifically calls on the Swazi
regime to uphold human rights.

“The UK calls on the Government of Swaziland to abide by the 2005
Constitution, which guarantees the rights of all Swazi citizens to
freedom of assembly and freedom of expression,” the letter says.

UPDATE: 17 February 2012

After a time-span of a year without news about the case, a Desk Officer at the British Foreign Office stressed that "we are continuing to press the Swaziland authorities to investigate [the] case. We have stressed that we do take such allegations very seriously and will continue to make the necessary representations."