Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HAS said it believes the Irish Government is doing ‘everything it can’ to secure the release of Ibrahim Halawa.
It follows the publication of excerpts from a letter, smuggled out of a Cairo prison, written by the Irish teen and published by Sky News.
Halawa wrote that the Government ‘isn’t working hard’ to secure his release as he doesn’t have an Irish name and isn’t white.
Halawa been charged, along with 493 others, of murder, attempted murder and participating in an illegal protest.
Murder and attempted murder offences are punishable by death under Egyptian law.
He has now spent 554 days in prison, and it is believed the letter was penned on the same day his cellmate, journalist Peter Greste, was released.
“The letter discussed publicly today… expresses the real fear, the real struggle to understand what is happening to him,” Amnesty chief executive Colm O’Gorman told TheJournal.ie
He is, I would imagine, a very frightened kid, who has been through a really horrific experience, and he’s now watching other people in the prison being released.
He added that the Department of Foreign Affairs has been doing everything possible, but many crucial steps are not made public.
It is believed the letter also contains repeated insistences that he is innocent, something O’Gorman also believes.
“There is absolutely no evidence that connects him to the charges. It was a cut and paste charge applied to hundreds of other people. He is detained purely for exercising his freedom of expression.”
O’Gorman said the efforts to secure Halawa’s release is entering a crucial stage, and that it is important for all those involved to remain focused.
It has never crossed to me in my life that… the Irish government would not work hard because I am not white or with me not having an Irish name or even because my religion.How can my children in the future feel safe when their own government will judge them by their skin colour or religion?
In response to the letter, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said:
We understand the frustration that can build for those involved in prolonged consular cases. However, any suggestion that Ibrahim’s case is not getting priority because he is of Egyptian heritage or because of his name is simply untrue. It is absolutely without foundation.
It is understood Minister Charlie Flanagan had a “positive and constructive meeting” with the Halawa family this morning, with whom he has been in contact with since August 2013.
Responding to Senator Cáit Keane in the Seanad today, Minister Flanagan said:
“This case is a source of concern for me, as I know it is for the Senator and many others. From my first day in office, I have taken an active role in progressing matters. In my first week in office I spoke to Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry to set out my concerns about Mr. Halawa’s detention.”
Senior officials in Dublin and Cairo have been in ongoing and sustained contact with the Egyptian authorities, including senior officials at the foreign ministry, the Ministry of Justice and the office of the prosecutor general. Mr. Halawa has received 34 consular visits from Irish Embassy staff, including Ambassador Moylan, approximately one visit every two weeks.
Halawa’s trial was again adjourned on Sunday.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
What a great guy. Shame he is not in politics!
Mick Lynch isn’t a visionary but someone who’s vocally expressed in a way we all need to understand. This country and many others is oblivious to the suction of all our worth financially to the few. It needs to stop
Brilliant man. We all fought long and hard for workers rights. Bullies taking over everywhere. Solidarity is key.
I’d like to see the trade union movement grow in Ireland, considering the low wages and high corporate profits.
The country I emigrated to, jobs must recognise unions, and when 50% are members of a union we get to set a Collective Agreement between workers and the boss, because it is the workers who make the profits and we get to request a fairer share of those profits we make. Scandinavian countries have low unemployment rates like Ireland and are not short of businesses.
A committed brexiteer.
@honey badger: not !
@Ger Byrne: I’m afraid so. An excellent union man but his support for brexit is unfortunate.
@Ger Byrne: he endorsed Brexit in 2016 and when interviewed recently (2021 or 2022 I think), he told he would vote again the same way should there be another referendum today. The Remain camp has been guilty of assuming only right-wingers would endorse leaving the EU. There plenty of left-leaning Brexiteers like Lynch in the UK.
@Alex Marquis: *there are.
@Alex Marquis:
There is a narrative among the Left, that the EU is a capitalist project. It is a story made to fit in to Marxist doctrine.
The Left are prone to confused thinking on various (many) issues. This is one of them .
Go back to the 70′s – it was strong unions which brought down the nationalised industries and created Thatcherism.
Mick Lynch is not going to lead UK anywhere good. He is a product of bad times, which was created by his line of thinking.
@Antony Stack: agreed. The right (Ted Heath) was in power when the UK joined the then EEC in 1973. It endorsed remain (with very few exceptions like Enoch Powell) in the 1975 referendum. The left, especially the hard left behind Tony Benn, endorsed leave.
‘Open Nazis’ and ‘Ultra right’ !? Is plain old ‘far right’ not hyperbole enough for this commie dipstick,that he needs to up the ante?
Socialist unions invite cheap foreign labour on one hand and claim to support the British worker on the other. What does illegal immigration have to do with pay and conditions? Nothing. The far left have taken over the unions and turned them into militant activists for globalism.
@ Antony Stack: ” it was strong unions that brought down the nationalised industries and created thatcherism”
have your say