British taxpayers are funding foreign courts where hundreds have been condemned to death under draconian laws that consider throwing shoes to be a terror offence, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Millions of pounds of public cash has been pumped into secretive Government funds and is then used to pay for criminal justice systems infamous for executions and wrongful convictions or where basic freedoms are under threat, including Pakistan and Somaliland.

Chief among them is the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, which is to receive £1.28bn in 2018/19 and draws nearly half of its money from the aid budget.

The cross-departmental pot has been repeatedly criticised for lacking transparency and...