VIDEO: David Tennant Takes Part In Reprieve's Last Words Campaign



David Tennant is one of a number of actors lending their voices to Reprieve's new Last Words video. The human rights organistation fights to end the death penalty worldwide.
The video shows David alongside other actors including Adjoa Andoh, Matthew Macfadyen, Tobias Menzies and Olivia Colman reading the stories of death row prisoners, past and present, in their own words.

In a short film narrated by David Morrissey (The Walking Dead), released today the actors voice a series of statements from people affected by the death penalty. The video features the last words of prisoners like Edward Earl Johnson and Aftab Bahadur, who were executed despite strong evidence of their innocence, as well as the ‘first words’ of prisoners freed after being unjustly held on death row, or in similar lengthy detention such as at Guantanamo Bay.




The film also includes the words of prisoners who are at imminent risk of execution, including Saudi juvenile Ali al-Nimr, British father of three Andy Tsege, and Irish student Ibrahim Halawa. Ali al-Nimr was sentenced to ‘crucifixion’ in Saudi Arabia following his arrest as a child in 2012. Ali was tortured into ‘confessing’ to protest-related charges, and now faces execution alongside several other juveniles.
Andy Tsege is held in Ethiopia under a sentence of death that was handed down in absentia while he was living in London, on charges relating to his opposition to the Ethiopian government. In 2014, he was kidnapped at an airport and illegally ‘rendered’ to Ethiopia. Mr Tsege’s partner and children in London are unable to speak to him, and there are fears for his wellbeing.
Ibrahim Halawa, from Dublin, was a juvenile when he was arrested in Egypt in 2013, for allegedly attending protests. He faces a death sentence in a ‘mass trial’ of 494 people, and is regularly tortured in prison.

Find out more about Reprieve and their work on their website here.

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