INNOCENT IBRAHIM IS THANK COD I’M HOME..
»»Fish & chips first meal after prison ordeal »»dubliner’s four years in egypt jail over incarceration was a living hell for Halawa
Ibrahim’s family at Dublin Airport
With father Sheikh Hussein Halawa and Minister Katherine Zappone INNOCENT Ibrahim Halawa arrived home after four years of hell in an Egyptian prison yesterday, hugged his family and revealed he was gasping for fish and chips.
The student who was just 17 when he was detained and jailed in Cairo in 2013, looked overwhelmed but overjoyed when he jetted into Dublin Airport after 11am.
Wearing a baseball hat, hoodie, T-shirt and jeans, he beamed: “It still feels like a dream, this is the moment I’ve waited for.”
After being asked what his first meal would be, Ibrahim added: “I’ve actually been eating a lot but I’m going to eat so much more now. Fish and chips. Definitely fish and chips.”
He was released late last week after being acquitted four weeks earlier of all charges, which IBRAHIM was one of 15 men crammed into a tiny cell in an Egyptian hellhole.
They were kept in searing temperatures, with no air conditioning despite the blazing sun.
Prisoners slept on the floor without beds or mattresses. The only toilets were blocked and related to a mass Muslim Brotherhood protest in Egypt in August 2013.
The 21-year-old said his priority was to spend time with his sick mum Amina Mostafa, who he met privately along with his dad, prominent Dublin Muslim cleric Sheikh Hussein Halawa, siblings and nieces and nephews.
The Firhouse man’s family regularly spoke about how his health had deteriorated during his time in prison and when asked about it, he said: “I need to get some medical checks, my mum is sick so I need to be by her side and I need to get some family time.”
He flew back to Ireland with his sister Nasaybi and Ambassador to Egypt Sean O’regan to be reunited with his entire family for the first time in four years.
As Ibrahim stood under a balloon formation which spelt out the word Innocent, with the Irish stinking. The Dublin teen was shot in the hand as he left the mosque, but never got medical attention.
Plastic canes were used to beat the men, because they did not leave marks.
On at least one occasion officers in balaclavas barged into his cell and beat him with chains.