Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Notwithstanding what the Minister said, is it not clear that far more pressure needs to be put on the Egyptian Government regarding the need for the immediate release of Ibrahim Halawa? He is not just an Irish citizen in an Egyptian jail; he is, to my knowledge, the only European Union citizen in an Egyptian jail on a political charge. Is it not clear that the Irish Government should demand action that will avoid a trial? This is not a normal country with a normal judicial process. It is a dictatorship where 400 or 500 people have been put in a cage and are being tried together on charges that carry the death sentence. Has the Minister studied the case of the Australian journalist Peter Greste who was held on trumped-up charges but who was freed under law 140 of the Egyptian code which provides for the deportation of an accused foreign national in Egypt to be dealt with under the law of his or her home state? Should the Minister not call for a presidential decree that this law be invoked? The Minister said the Taoiseach had met President el-Sisi in New York on the margins of the United Nations. Can the Minister tell us what was said and what the President of Egypt said in response? This information has not been relayed to the family.

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