Monthly Archives: June 2015

I have asked Amnesty International to appear before the Foreign Affairs Committee at this week’s meeting. Were they put under the same pressure by the government? Kitty Holland reports on Ibrahim Halawa in Saturday’s Irish Times:

Friday’s Irish Times reported my suggestion that the Foreign Affairs Committee should visit Ibrahim Halawa:

Taoiseach told of Ibrahim Halawa hunger strike last week

Oireachtas committee members want to visit teenager in Cairo prison

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan were told last week that Ibrahim Halawa, the Irish teenager detained in Egypt for almost two years, was considering hunger strike.

They were informed at a meeting with his father and two of his sisters and appealed for him to reconsider. Mr Halawa’s decision to go on hunger strike, in a move designed to highlight his plight in Egyptian custody where he has been since August 2013, was outlined in a letter smuggled from prison and released to The Irish Times.

In a Dáil debate yesterday, Mr Flanagan said he was aware what the 19-year-old from Firhouse in Dublin was considering. “I advised against this course of action saying it was unlikely to serve any positive purpose in his trial and would, obviously, be detrimental to his health,” he said.

“This view is shared by Ibrahim’s lawyer who has given him similar advice. I am asking Ibrahim to maintain his health by taking food.” Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed the Government’s approach to securing Mr Halawa’s release was “at best tepid”.

‘Lift the phone’

She said the Taoiseach should “lift the phone today to contact the Egyptian prime minister today and state categorically that we demand the release of our citizen and Dublin man Ibrahim Halawa”.

Mr Kenny told reporters yesterday the Government was “very conscious” of Mr Halawa’s case but “we are also conscious . . . whether I like or whether I don’t, it is the legal system of Egypt which applies here and I would be very careful not to say anything or to do anything that would make the situation worse”. He said he hoped the hunger strike would “end quickly”.

Fianna Fáil Senator Mark Daly, who sits on the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, said its members had proposed to the department on Wednesday that a delegation travel to Egypt to meet Mr Halawa to coincide with his next court date in August. Mr Halawa and about 420 co-defendants are due to have their case heard, although his family anticipate further delays. He was detained at the Fatah mosque in Cairo in August 2013.

Mr Flanagan said the Government was “maintaining extensive contact” with Egyptian authorities and Mr Halawa had been visited 41 times by officials.

The Foreign Affairs Committee are considering visiting Irish Citizen in Egyptian Jail

The Senate Leader will be asking for the Minister of Foreign Affairs to come to Senate so as to facilitate debate concerning the imprisonment of Ibrahim Halawa, who Amnesty International has said is innocent of all charges. Mr. Halawa, (19) an Irish born citizen of Firehouse in Dublin, has been imprisoned for 666 days after his supposed involvement in confrontations with Egyptian Security Forces in Cairo in 2013. Amnesty International has maintained that Mr. Halawa is innocent of all charges, and has asked for his immediate release. After the most recent instance of his case being adjourned, Mr. Halawa has gone on a hunger strike until he is released and returned home. Mr. Halawa, in a note smuggled out of his cell, spoke of his heinous living conditions with 40 other prisoners and how he oftentimes will “wake up to noises of torture knowing I can be next.” His family has expressed great concern over the conditions that Mr. Halawa is enduring, and is questioning the government handling of this situation even though Ibrahim is an Irish citizen.
Senator Mark Daly has also been critical of the lack of government action saying “The Taoiseach needs to get involved as the Prime Ministers of Canada and Australia have”
Senator Daly has proposed that members of the Foreign Affairs committee should go visit Mr. Halawa and meet with members of the Egyptian government. The outcome of the situation remains up in the air, with Mr. Halawa set to stand trial on August 2nd.

While disappointed not to be selected to run for the party, over the last few weeks I was enjoying the canvass trail with one of our two candidates, Mayor of Kerry John Brassil.

At the Foreign Affairs Committee today I proposed for the committee to visit Ibrahim Halawa in Egypt. Ibrahim is now on hunger strike in the jail he has been in for 2 years. The Taoiseach has to get involved and call the President of Egypt.