Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is worth recalling the basic facts of what is facing Ibrahim to demonstrate that the notion of due process is a complete joke in a country like Egypt is at present. We have an Irish citizen, Ibrahim Halawa, who has now been in prison for more than 1,000 days. He is imprisoned in conditions that have been described as a nightmare, with concrete beds and permanent lockdown, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He is in prison because he participated in a peaceful protest and for that he is charged with terrorism, with the use of explosives, and with murder. He faces a mass trial with close to 500 people where he faces the threat of the death penalty or life imprisonment. There is zero chance of Ibrahim Halawa getting justice through the Egyptian judicial system. He is the victim of a bloody counter-revolution.

I accept that everyone in this House wants to see Ibrahim released. That is clear. The question is whether the Government's strategy so far has worked. We have raised this on multiple occasions and every time the Minister says the Government is doing its very best but there is a separation of powers and it cannot interfere in the administration of justice in another country. Most recently, we heard that the Government expected the trial would go ahead on 29 June and that afterwards the presidential decree could be applied for under law 140. I presume that came from the Egyptian authorities. It did not happen. We had the 14th delay of the trial. It is time to draw some conclusions. It is not a narrow partisan political point to say the approach of the Government until now has clearly failed. The Egyptian authorities are clearly treating the Irish authorities as fools, and the approach of not rocking the boat now has to end. The Government cannot accept the bona fides of these people or their honesty when they are negotiating. It cannot expect that they are going to allow justice to run its course and to allow Ibrahim to come home.

We have to take action now. We must immediately make an application under law 140 for his release and we should summon the Egyptian ambassador immediately. If we do not have action, we should threaten to and then actually withdraw our own ambassador. The point Deputy Boyd Barrett has raised regarding trade relations is key. We know there are trade relations. We have to use the full force we have to demand an immediate release and not to accept that the situation continues.

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