PRESS RELEASE

Prisoners Abroad welcomes the news of the recent transfer of British citizen Youssouf Ezangi from prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he had been sentenced to the death penalty in September 2024.

As reported in The Observer, Ezangi will serve the remainder of his sentence in the UK following a joint effort by the Death Penalty Project, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

One of Prisoners Abroad’s key advocacy pillars highlights the need for development of a proactive prisoner transfer strategy. We would like to see more prisoner transfer agreements (PTAs) between the UK and other countries, including the proactive assessment and requesting of transfers to the UK of British nationals serving sentences in prisons overseas where there are significant concerns about their health or welfare. We believe that the UK government should be negotiating PTAs with countries holding British citizens. Where such agreements are not currently in place, we believe consular staff should be able to make representations on behalf of these individuals to the relevant government. 

With no official transfer agreement in place between the UK and the DRC, this is a huge achievement on welfare and humanitarian grounds, while also demonstrating the UK government’s commitment to upholding justice.

Director of Prisoner and Family Support, Laura Bevan, says:

“We are always pleased to see people who want to return to the UK to serve the rest of their sentence able to do so. It brings them closer to family, allows them more humane conditions and access to better healthcare, and enables them to prepare for life after imprisonment with dignity and hope. Prisoners Abroad would like to see more prisoner transfer agreements working to ease the isolation and deprivation that people can face in detention overseas; in places where there is no agreement in place, it is really good to see key agencies working together in this way to achieve a positive outcome. We hope this can be followed up by agreeing a PTA with the DRC that can be accessed by others in the future.”

You can learn more about our advocacy pillars here.

---

For Press:

[email protected]

T: +44 (0) 20 7561 6820 (option 5)

 For more information about press enquiries, click here.