More needs to be done to support Irish man abroad

PAT Hickey may be the most prominent Irish man detained in a foreign jail but there is another pressing case that warrants the attention of the Irish Government. For the last three years Ibrahim Halawa has been incarcerated in Egypt in various prisons where, it has been alleged, prisoners endure brutal treatment.

Ibrahim Halawa’s offence was to take a vocal but non violent role in the protests following the overthrow of autocratic Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in a military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

The Sisi government have charged Halawa – and more than 400 others arrested with him – with murder and attempted murder despite there being little, if any, evidence to back up the charges.

Halawa and his co-defendants languish in prison and three years on there is little indication of their case – which has now been adjourned 14 times – moving towards a conclusion.

The Irish government has been playing a role in the case, albeit a small one. Ireland’s Ambassador to Egypt pays regular visits to Halawa in prison but without more forceful and determined backing from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Minister Charlie Flanagan there is little the ambassador can offer. The lack of Government assistance for Halawa is alarming. While some ill-informed and malicious online commentators have tried to paint the young Dubliner as a fundamentalist fire brand and an aspiring terrorist, this is most certainly not the case.

Halawa was born in Dublin’s Coombe Hospital in 1995 and went to school in Ballycullen. All who know him say he was a normal teenager who enjoyed football, music and had little interest in politics.

He did not, as some suggest, travel to Egypt with the express intention of joining the protests. In fact, the coup that removed Morsi from office happened nine days after Halawa and his three sisters arrived in Egypt to spend the summer with relatives.

The Halawa siblings became caught up in a wave of anti coup protests. They were vocal – addressing crowds in front of an ‘Egyptians Abroad for Democracy’ banner – but there is no indication, despite claims from Egyptian authorities, that they were violent.

The protest turned increasingly violent. The Halawas were arrested after they took refuge in Cairo’s Al Fateh mosque as the army began firing on a crowd that had gathered to protest the killing by security forces of around 900 protestors two days earlier.

One of the biggest sticking points of the case is the question over why the Halawas did not leave the mosque when they were supposedly offered safe passage. Egyptian Ambassador to Ireland Soha Gendi claims the Halawa siblings refused safe passage out of the mosque. The Halawa family strongly deny these claims.

Amnesty International, which has declared Ibrahim a prisoner of conscience, agrees with the Halawas that safe passage was not an option. Whatever the exact circumstances of Halawa’s arrest, he is still facing the death penalty but Amnesty International question whether Ibrahim should be on trial at all.

While the Halawa family and Amnesty International continue to fight for Halawa’s release, the Government appears to be doing very little. Some behind the scenes negotiations have taken place. However, the EU’s division over the current Egyptian regime, coupled with the Irish Government’s desire to maintain good relations with the Egyptian Government, appears to be hampering efforts.

The Irish Government is usually quick to react when an Irish citizen is in jeopardy abroad. Much, much more needs to be done in this case.