Written answers

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Human Rights Issues

Photo of Gerry AdamsGerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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133. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if the imprisonment of al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt was raised at the EU summit in Brussels. [28972/14]

Photo of Eamon GilmoreEamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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I share the widespread international concern over the severe sentences imposed by a court in Cairo on 23 June on a number of Al Jazeera journalists for essentially doing no more than their job. In my address to the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade on 25 June I condemned this verdict, which amounts to the criminalisation of the legitimate activities of a free press, and represents an unacceptable restriction on freedom of expression and fundamentally undermines the credibility of the Egyptian judicial system. The situation in Egypt was not on the agenda of the European Council meeting on 26/27 June. However, the issue was discussed at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg which I attended on 23 June. High Representative Ashton issued a statement after the meeting on behalf of the EU expressing the concern of the Council about the verdicts as well as about the death sentences imposed against more than 180 people following the recent well-publicised trial in Minya, Upper Egypt.

Egypt's new constitution provides guarantees for the fundamental rights of its people which the Egyptian courts, regrettably, do not appear to have fully recognized and vindicated in a number of recent verdicts. This is deeply worrying to those of us who wish to support Egypt and the Egyptian people in their ongoing difficult transition to democracy. These concerns have been clearly communicated in our ongoing contacts with the Egyptian authorities, both here and through our Embassy in Cairo, most recently by senior officials in my Department at a meeting with the Egyptian Embassy last week which specifically conveyed my concerns over the recent Al Jazeera verdicts as well as the continued detention of Ibrahim Halawa.

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