The Halawa case: Is Ibrahim a pawn in Egypt’s political game?
Three years after the arrest of an Irish teenager amid violent clashes in Egypt, Rachel Lavin examines the case against Ibrahim Halawa
THE case of Ibrahim Halawa is dominated by two competing narratives. There is the wellknown story in Ireland of the young Irish Leaving Cert student who was spurred to demonstrate for democracy amid a violent military coup.
And then there is another version of Ibrahim’s story, one which plays a more substantial role in the case against him in the Egyptian courts. That is the story of the son of an influential Muslim Brotherhood family promoting dissent after the secular military intervened in President Morsi’s increasingly autocratic and Islamist government and restored order to a country on the ‘brink of civil war’.
The Egyptian Ambassador to Ireland, Soha Gendi, tends to side with the latter case against Ibrahim Halawa.
Referring to Ibrahim’s father, Sheikh Hussein Halawa, who is Imam to the Clonskeagh Mosque (ICCI), she says: “(He) sent his son and daughters to talk to the people, to try to mobilise the crowds from the Muslim Brotherhood”.
This is not the first time Sheikh Halawa has been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. In US cables from 2006 published by WikiLeaks, US authorities raised suspicions over the conservative leanings of Sheikh Halawa, noting how other moderate Muslim leaders in Ireland had accused Halawa and other ICCI leaders of membership in the Muslim Brotherhood.
One journalist was even quoted in the leaked WikiLeaks cables as saying that, other than in Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood has its strongest base in Ireland, making it the largest in Europe.
According to the report however, “when queried, Halawa and others failed to clarify their position regarding the organisation, but distanced themselves and other Muslims from any groups that espoused violence to achieve ends.”
Ibrahim’s sister, Somaia (29) who was also arrested and briefly imprisoned, denies the Muslim Brotherhood was an influence in their actions.
“Whether or not my dad is Muslim Brotherhood or not has nothing to do with myself. (My father) never forced us to be a part of anything.”
Rather, she explains, she and her siblings joined the protests not in defence of Morsi, but the democratic process.
“I’m pro-democracy, even if it’s someone I did not vote for, if there was a coup, I would still protest. No one has the right to do that, to take my voice, your voice or anyone else’s voice.”
These competing narratives about the Halawas’ purpose in Egypt are most stark when it comes to the night of Ibrahim’s arrest, now the subject of a major trial in Egypt.
On the night in question the Halawas have claimed they had arrived late to a protest in Ramses Square and found military violence against protesters.
“The army were firing at protesters. We had to seek shelter in the mosque, because this was the safest place.”
However, the Egyptian government’s account of events is substantially different. Ambassador Gendi claims the Halawas did not just find escape to the mosque, but led a crowd to Ramses Square in an effort to mobilise the city after curfew, and ended their march purposefully in the Al-Fateh Mosque, the largest most sacred mosque in downtown Cairo.
This led to a stand-off with anti-Morsi vigilantes, spurring the military to intervene. Ambassador Gendi claims it was the pro-Morsi protesters that fired the first shots from inside the mosque, killing a policeman and sparking a gun battle with security forces.
This is something Somaia Halawa disputes. “This is not true. If we were to witness a place with a gun we would never be around it”.
One of the biggest sticking points of the case is the question over why the Halawas did not leave the mosque. Ambassador Gendi claims the Halawa siblings refused safe passage out of the mosque, even turning down the Irish Ambassador’s offer to send a car.
Somaia strongly denies these claims.
“The security officers were surrounding the mosque... We were showing our passports saying ‘we are Irish, we just want to leave’ but they didn’t care, they (security) said if you leave you will either be arrested or shot. (We said to the ambassador), ‘you have to come and take us’. And they said ‘no we can’t, it’s not safe’. So, how could we leave?”
International reporting from this so-called ‘day of rage’ in which protestors and the military clashed across the country, says 60 people died that day, 52 civillians and eight police officers. But there is very little conclusive evidence of what happened that night in Al-Fateh mosque in the public domain, except for some footage that surfaced of Ibrahim speaking from inside.
“People are killing us,” he said. “They have us surrounded in a mosque to kill us. Back in Ireland, a dog has more freedom than we have here. I want what’s happening back in Ireland to happen back here.”
He goes on: “Everyone is willing to give themselves until the last bullet. We are Allah’s, willing, to give our lives for any, any, price because this is now an Islamic matter.”
That night Ibrahim and his sisters were taken into custody. Ibrahim has now been in prison for nearly three years, where he faces charges (alongside approximately 490 other protesters) of “being a culprit in the felony of participating in a mob that led to the crimes of deliberate and premeditated murder, also crimes of initiating arson in buildings causing destruction and of possessing arms not licensed for possession.”
His last trial date on June 29, was adjourned for the 14th time until October, but many feel this will bring a final verdict. Some fear the death penalty, but Ambassador Gendi says this won’t happen as Ibrahim was a minor at the time of his arrest. However, she rejects Irish Government-backed calls for presidential decree securing his release before the trial, saying that even in the oft-compared case of Australian Peter Greste, he was only released post-conviction. Ambassador Gendi declined the invitation to appear at a Oireachtas Hearing last Thursday.
“This is a huge terrorism case,” she says. “People were murdered and people were victimised during that case. And people were wounded as well. If it was vice versa, and there was an Egyptian in your jail and he has been accused of involvement in a terrorism case and there are people who have died due to that case, would we just have the face even to ask you to disregard the court of law and disregard the judiciary system?”
Some dispute that this is a fair trial.
Citing repeated adjournments to the mass trial, Amnesty International’s Colm O’Gorman says the Egyptian government has “scant regard now for fair trial or due process or even the international standards that should apply if you have regard for international human rights law.”
Amnesty International question whether Ibrahim should be on trial at all. Having examined the prosecution files they determined that there is “no evidence” to link him to the serious charges made against him, and that he is being “detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly”. They have declared him a prisoner of conscience.
Away from the criminal court however, how does Ibrahim’s case fair in light of wider politics in Egypt?
While Egyptian authorities will say politics will play no role in the outcome, Somaia confirms that early on in the case when all four Halawas were still imprisoned, the Egyptian government offered to release the three sisters if Sheikh Halawa and the Irish government agreed to recog- nise the coup. Sheikh Halawa refused to do so.
This is an ideological battle between the assumed wider Muslim Brotherhood network and General Sisi’s military-led government struggling to gain legitimacy in Egypt, with 20-year-old Ibrahim considered by some as a pawn.
But three years on, in a more stable Egypt, what of Ibrahim?
On the one hand, Egyptian authorities may fear they will appear weak if they are too lenient on Ibrahim, giving hope to Muslim Brotherhood supporters to rise up again. However, on the other hand, if the judiciary system is seen as being too harsh, it could further martyr the defendants, stoking an angry backlash from Muslim Brotherhood sympathisers and significantly damaging Sisi’s desired image as a peacemaker in Egypt.
Indeed, Soha Gendi admits she already suspects those facing charges to be purposefully postponing the trial in order to do so.
“It’s in the overall benefit of the Muslim Brotherhood to martyr themselves as being the legitimate people, to make themselves look like they are the ones who have been wronged by this kind of ‘bad bad regime’.”
However, Somaia Halawa believes it is the Egyptian authorities who are delaying Ibrahim’s verdict to avoid this dilemma.
“The problem is they can’t give them a sentence because they have no evidence and at the same time they can’t come through and say, ‘I’m sorry he’s actually innocent’, so they’re in a very difficult position.”
Meanwhile pressure from Ireland is another dimension.
While the outcome for all the 490 inmates could influence Egyptian politics from within, Ibrahim’s case has international influence and a punishment deemed too harsh could cause Sisi’s government to fall out of favour in Ireland and the West, as well as putting Egypt’s important trade and political links with Ireland at risk.
For her part, Ambassador Gendi is optimistic the case may finally be resolved.
“Once he’s charged... a political decision can happen in the light of the good relations between the two countries. The presidential decree is likely in the case that the government of Ireland and his lawyers, of course, presents this demand.”
Somaia remains on guard: “They have no respect for human rights whatsoever so they can do anything at any time.
“We can see the Irish government are working very very hard. There’s a whole parliament calling for Ibrahim’s release.”
‘Would we ask you to disregard the law if an Egyptian was accused of terrorism here?’