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“I WANT TO go home.” That was Ibrahim Halawa’s first message to the delegation of eight TDs which met with him on Tuesday in Wadi el-Natrun prison in Egypt.
We had come to visit this 21-year-old Irish citizen, on the back of a public campaign spearheaded by his tirelessly campaigning sisters and a Dáil motion calling for his release. He is the son of Egyptian parents and a victim of severe attacks on democratic and human rights in Egypt.
He was 17 when he visited Egypt and participated in a protest along with his sisters against the removal of President Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood (also no friend of democratic or human rights), who had replaced the dictator Hosni Mubarak.
The new military regime was engaged in a brutal crackdown, which saw up to 1,000 people killed in one night, has seen many thousands ‘disappeared’ and has resulted in prisons overflowing with activists, journalists and those like Ibrahim, who were unlucky enough to be caught up in it.
They sheltered from attack in a mosque and when they were taken out they were arrested. Ibrahim told us in the prison that when the police originally arrested him, they said they just needed to hold him for five minutes to check he had no previous criminal convictions. Over three years later, he is still languishing in prison, with no verdict or sentence, and with a seemingly interminable court process, which has now seen 17 adjournments.
Hunger strikes
Meeting Ibrahim in prison was an experience that will not easily leave me. Dressed in white prison clothes, with his freshly cut hair (he explained that this was for our benefit on behalf of the prison authorities), he made a striking impression. He is, in person, the same articulate, brave, smart, young person that comes across in his letters.
He told us about his conditions, which were far from the picture painted for us by the ‘general manager’ of the prison. It is a maximum security prison, with 10 people crowded into his cell, with their feet touching and no space to move while sleeping. They sleep centimetres off the hard ground, on tiny mattresses.
There is one toilet per cell and no privacy. In a previous prison, he said he was beaten with an iron bar and cut with metal chains by prison guards. He was also punished for refusing visits previously, by being put in a tiny cell two metres long and 80cm wide.
While Ibrahim’s resilience is extremely impressive, it is also clear that over three years in prison inevitably takes its toll. He is desperate to be home and with each court appearance (which are mass trials with 493 other defendants), which comes and goes with no verdict, he loses hope that he will ever be free.
This desperation has now resulted in him resorting to hunger strike on a number of occasions and when we visited he was refusing food, which resulted in him fainting the day before. He was encouraged by TDs to eat again, to regain his strength and to look after his own health.
Meeting with the president
We left Ibrahim with a promise that we would do everything we could to fulfil his wish to come home. The next day, we met with President el-Sisi in the Mubarak-era Presidential Palace to convey this message. The contrast with the conditions of the prison couldn’t be starker. High ceilings, ornate furniture and grand paintings made the point that this was a place of power. Wide doors swung open inside the building to reveal the president sitting in front of a massive tapestry of Egypt.
El-Sisi said that due process has to be followed and that he has no power to intervene in advance of the conclusion of the court process. However, he said that at the end of that process he will have the power to pardon Ibrahim and will exercise it immediately. With no clear finish line for that court process, this was essentially a restatement of the position he has previously given to the Taoiseach.
This idea, of a separation of powers between the executive and judiciary and his inability to intervene in a case before it has concluded in the courts is the central argumentation we heard in all our meetings, including with Egyptian MPs.
When I put to the president that, under Egyptian Law 140, we understood the President may intervene in advance of the conclusion of a case to transfer a defendant to their home country where “the higher interest of the state so requires”, he simply didn’t answer.
We left Cairo without Ibrahim, unfortunately. Our interventions with the Egyptian authorities at every one of the meetings will have left them in no doubt that Ibrahim’s release, not beef, trade or tourism, is the central issue.
All eyes will be on Ibrahim’s scheduled court appearance next Tuesday. If, as seems likely, it is adjourned once more, we will have to use the impact of our visit and the increased awareness that has been created to build an even more effective campaign of pressure on the Egyptian authorities for his immediate release and return home.
Paul Murphy is an Anti-Austerity Alliance TD for Dublin South West.
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Emigration claims another victim.
She’ll have to wait years for the Lyon’s tea and Tayto crisps to be posted to her.
There will be lesz of a waiting list up there I reckon
Actual proof that there is one born every minute. Most elaborate planned suicide I have ever heard of.
And that one is you John. She knows what this entails, it’s not like she’s signing up devil may care.
Muppet comment.
ha ha…. I’ll tell you what Eric… I’ll pay for your ticket.
How does she know what it entails Eric? No one on this planet has ever been in the situation of leaving and never coming back. It may happen sometime but it won’t be anytime soon. This whole pile of crap is only publicity for an up and coming reality show. If you think any differently you really do deserve to be on it!
The novelty will wear off after about 5 minutes. She is going to a rock with a group of people she doesn’t know to live out the rest of her days doing Sweet Fanny Adams. That sounds like a prison sentence to me.
Completely agree. It’s a life sentence.
People with zero sense of adventure will never understand this kind of endeavour. There is no way to explain it to you.
@cpm…. a very short life sentence.
If there’s one thing I cannot be accused of, it’s having no sense of adventure. I spent two years after Uni travelling. I’ve been to every continent with the exception of Antarctica, working all manner of odd jobs along the way. l also emigrated from home 3 years ago during which time I’ve lived in 2 different cities and worked 3 different jobs. I’d say I’m more adventurous than most; but a rock with no oxygen, no family, no friends, no hope of ever coming home and the absence of anything to preoccupy myself with…call me crazy… but it just doesn’t do it for me!
That’s not adventure. You just did the same things millions of others have done. These colonists will have opportunities do do things that no other human has done. Every day will offer the potential for any one of them to be the first person to discover sonething new.
Any scientist or artist who has created or disovered something new and unique has experienced more adventure than you are likely to in your entire life.
For those who think that way, this trip is a no brainer. It is bigger than themselves, their friends and their families. These people think bigger than you do.
Sorry Jimbo, I didn’t realise you’re the foremost authority on for what qualifies as adventure, do you need to have watched every episode of Star Trek to get that qualification?! You said I had “zero” sense of adventure. I merely pointed out that I had more sense of adventure than most. Don’t get me wrong – I’m very happy there are people who are crazy and brave enough to undertake a one way trip to Mars, just pointing out that it will be a very boring affair unless you’re into rocks. And btw I studied at IADT and happen to be quite decent with a paint brush so you can get down off your high horse.
“didn’t realise you’re the foremost authority on for what qualifies as adventure”
I’m certainly not. But I know who is. Every single person with the courage to sign up for this mission. Every one of the 200k+ people who did that are more courageous and adventurous than you or I.
This’ll never take off
4.4 Billion to go n start messing about on another planet, wouldn’t that be better spent trying to fix the mess that’s been made here first?
Mind you, if she took a few crates of Guinness along she could open the first Irish pub!
You do realise that it is personal wealth being used to find this?
Finance
LMAO 4.4 billion is a drop in the ocean compared to the 100 billion europe wastes every year in its failing attempts to save this planet.
I can’t see this project going ahead, it’s pure madness! Yes it’s great to dream a dream blah blah blah etc, but we don’t even have colonies on the moon yet, or bottom of the sea. Surely it’s crucial to take those steps first before this is even remotely possible. Advances need to be made in so many different fields before this is even feasible. Then there’s the big brother type situation, with boredom, fighting, and no prospect of even getting out and selling your story to the Sun.
What makes the moon or the bottom of the see the logical next step?
This project is less of a longshot than putting man on the moon was in the 1960s. All of the technology they need already exists. They don’t even have to bring them back.
It is not trivial, but humans have completed bigger conquests than this.
Are you serious? Why is the moon not the next logical step? Come on, really? The logistics of setting up there provide an obvious learning curve for setting up a Colony on a distant and hostile environment. The recent search for the Malaysian Airlines flight at the bottom of the sea illustrates how difficult it is to access a place only a few miles beyond our reach. If we have problems with that, I can’t see Mars being to easy. Furthermore the technology situation isn’t our only limiting factor, there’s also the whole isolation, boredom and cabin fever type situations.
*too easy
“The logistics of setting up there provide an obvious learning curve for setting up a Colony on a distant and hostile environment”
No. The only advantage to going to the moon is that it is closer. It is a more hostile environment. At least Mars has limited protection from radiation and extreme temperatures, the moon has none. The moon has less gravity, so we’d have to overcome the problem of bone and muscle loss that is yet to be solved and having to go there first will considerably increase the overall cost of getting to Mars!
If anything we should be going to Mars as a first step to learn some of the lessons we’d need to learn to be able to live on the moon!
Using the moon as a stepping stone has been analysed to death and it has been rejected.
An Irish woman going to mars? Will she be sure to bring a box of celebrations and a bottle of 7up
Don’t forget the box of Barry’s tea!
And a box of Tayto
Might be better off starting with a moon base first. One step at a time.
Good luck to whoever makes it, true pioneers…assuming it ever gets going.
It’s a god awful small affair, to the girl in the mousey hair , her mother is yelling no , and her father has told her to go….and then it’ll all kick off with cavemen fighting on the dance floor and what not , the whole thing is maddening bore , heard it tens times before , or something..
Mind your manners if u have nothing nice to say than i suggest u keep ur nasty comment yourself
Who you talking shite about ….what Nasty comment?? , it’s lyrics to the David Bowie song is there life on Mars?? ….idiot
I really don’t think this project will go ahead.
Im up for adventure but if this ever goes ahead it has the making of a horror film. Fighting, bouts of insanity, realisation they will all die.
A lot of ignorant fools commenting today I see.
Why single out today? lol
You can cut the ignorance and short sightedness of commenters here with a knife. The education system has truly failed them… especially the idiot who thinks there is a face on mars.
Insults jimbo
The sign of a poor education
No Glen, a sign of a poor education is lacking basic critical thinking skills. Believing spooky stuff through because it’s more interesting to you than reality is not the product of an educated mind. Especially when you have to back it up with further belief in conspiracy theories.
Are you a lunar hoaxer and 911 troofer too? Probably.
Good luck to het if you are at heart an explorer it’s the chance of a lifetime
What if she gets pregnant?? What happens there, I wonder
She doesn’t get pregnant.
Has anyone stopped to think what the Martians think about all this ?
I mean seriously humans have done such a outstanding job on planet Earth I doubt we will be welcomed with open arms.
And don’t tell me it’s not inhabited someone built the face and the pyramid, what you guys didn’t know about the pyramid ??? Google is your friend.
Critical thinking is clearly not yours. You are an ignoramus.
Jimbo
Why so insulting ?
People don’t really call you jimbo do they ?
Because you are contributing to the mass of ignorance on the internet.
Really ?
Evidence for what I said has been around long before the WWW
Its been covered in many books. I’m assuming you know what a book is.
I know exactly what you are talking about. An early pre-viking image taken of the surface of mars, which due to shadow formations and mountains appeared to look like a face.
More recent pictures show that without the shadow formation it looks absolutely nothing like a face.
Try getting your information from credible sources.
There is a formation in galle crater that looks like kermit the frog. You going to tell me the martians built that too?
The human brain is wired to find patterns. Especially faces. There are random patterns all over mars just like there are on earth.
Jimbo
What mainstream sources failed to tell you was that’s not all it found. Thats just what it showed the people but over time it all leaked out and the full pictures of what was found in the area of Cydonia is available including one seriously huge pyramid. The contriversey about the face was to keep people like you from asking questions and it worked baaahhhh
LMAO. You really are seriously gullible.
Jimbo instead of mouthing out of you why don’t you offer the proof I’m wrong
Anytime you’re ready
Do you also beLIEve the martians built a monument to Kermit the frog? Is that another NASA conspiracy.
What gauge of aluminium do you use in your tin foil hat?
Jimbo
You are the first person to talk about Kermit ever
You’re boring me now
Where is that proof by the way
Yeah, I’ll bet you often get bored after having your @rse handed to you.
Do you look for meaning in clouds? You know, yesterday someone snapped a picture of a cloud shaped like Ireland. Spooky huh? Must be Marians…. or maybe Venetians :-O
I think she is very brave.
well done sister maybe first cork woman to go to mars. our late father and mother would be proud of you
well done sis
Good Luck Catherine Mary McGrath and Joseph Roche…
Steve Menaa
Didn’t know 7up and Celebrations were Irish…
The weird thing about space travel to a far away solar system, is that the later you leave, the sooner you’ll arrive! As technology improves you’ll only keep passing out the rockets you sent earlier.
It’s a premature unnecessary evil! Yeah it’s something that has never been done before but I think it’s wrong to ask someone to willingly sail away into a certain lonely death! I’d well believe people would do it to “better” the human race or in a spirit of extreme competition but those asking are selfish. Why don’t we spend another 40-50 years developing hyper speed space travel so we can send them there and back in no time and show a little restraint, we don’t really need to go to the red planet.
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