Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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1166. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the steps taken by his Department to provide assistance to a person (details supplied) an Irish citizen detained in Egypt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33050/14]

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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1182. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the position regarding the case of a person (details supplied) who is being detained in Egypt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33367/14]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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1189. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on the latest position of a person (details supplied) who is detained in Egypt; and the efforts that his Department has made to seek their release. [33510/14]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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1193. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which he and his EU colleagues continue to assist in the secure release of a person (details supplied) who is an Irish citizen imprisoned in Egypt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33592/14]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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1209. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the actions he has taken over the summer recess to ensure the human rights of a person (details supplied) have been upheld; when the Irish Consulate in Egypt last visited the person; and the actions that have been taken to ensure the person has access to their legal representatives and medical care. [34417/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1166, 1182, 1189, 1193 and 1209 together.

My Department and the Irish Embassy in Cairo continue to provide consular assistance to this individual and close consular support to his family, both in Ireland and in Egypt.

I have taken a close personal interest in the case. I have met with the family concerned and have had a number of phone calls and contacts with the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Minister Shoukry, in this regard. In those contacts, I have asked that the charges against this individual be reviewed, and that he be released and permitted to return home to Ireland. The considered and persistent actions taken to date by the Embassy in Cairo and officials in my Department have also been in pursuit of that objective, and to support this individual’s welfare and well-being while he remains in detention.

I raised this case with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Ms. Catherine Ashton at the recent Gymnich meeting of Foreign Ministers on 29 and 30 August 2014.

This is a difficult case in a complex and challenging context. While Ireland cannot interfere with the judicial process in Egypt, our concern at the continued and lengthy period of detention has been raised with the Egyptian authorities in a clear and sustained manner, as has the critical importance of due process in this case. I have also emphasised that this individual was only seventeen when the alleged offences took place. It is the Government’s view that this individual should not be tried as part of a group trial involving a large number of defendants and on the basis of group charges, but solely on the basis of specific evidence.

The Embassy of Ireland in Cairo has been in sustained and direct contact with the Egyptian authorities in relation to the case, and contacts have included numerous meetings at Ambassadorial level with senior officials from the Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Justice, and the office of the Prosecutor General. Consular officials, including the Irish Ambassador to Egypt Isolde Moylan, have visited this person on 24 separate occasions. The Ambassador and Consul from the Embassy also attended what was to have been an initial hearing in the case on 12 August. Diplomats from the Embassy have also met with his lawyer to discuss the case.

On 6 August 2014 this individual was moved from the prison where he had previously been held. During a visit by a representative of the Embassy on 19 August, he raised concerns with the Embassy about his treatment and conditions at the prison. Following representations by the Embassy, on 20 August he was moved to a separate section of the prison which we are satisfied has more favourable conditions and a better environment for the individual. Consular officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Dublin have met with family representatives on nine separate occasions and continue to keep the family updated and provide consular assistance.

The EU Special Representative for Human Rights, Mr. Stavros Lambrinidis raised this case with the then Egyptian Foreign Minister, Nabil Fahmy, and the Prosecutor General, Hisham Barakat, during his visit to Cairo in February 2014.

My predecessor the then Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore TD, raised this case with the EU High Representative Catherine Ashton at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 23 June 2014. This followed a letter from the then Tánaiste to Lady Ashton on 9 May 2014. Also, the then Tánaiste raised concerns at this person’s detention with the then Egyptian Foreign Minister, Nabil Fahmy, on 11 November and 23 December 2013.

The then Minister of State for European Affairs, Paschal Donohoe TD, also raised the case in person with High Representative Ashton at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on 12 May 2014.

In March 2014, the former Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter TD wrote to the then Egyptian Minister for Justice Abdel-Moneim Othman, raising the Government’s concerns at the individual’s continued detention.

Together with Ambassador Moylan and consular officials in my Department I will continue to seek a review of his case, his release and return to his family and, in the meantime, to provide all possible consular assistance to this individual and his family.