Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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126. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if Egypt was discussed at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on 6 March 2017; and if so, if he raised the case of a person (details supplied). [31830/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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EU Foreign Affairs ministers discussed EU-Egypt relations with the Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry, in a meeting in Brussels on 6 March 2017 on the margins of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.

My predecessor, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Minister Charlie Flanagan, attended those meeting and sought and secured a separate one-one-one meeting with his Egyptian counterpart on that occasion specifically to raise the case to which the Deputy refers.

Minister Flanagan restated forcefully the strong humanitarian arguments for this Irish citizen to be released, including his youth, isolation, separation from family and the long period for which he has been imprisoned without having been convicted of any wrongdoing. Minister Flanagan also raised concerns about this young man’s welfare and conditions of detention.

The Egyptian Minister undertook to follow up in order to ensure that our citizen receive all necessary medical treatment and that his conditions are satisfactory.

Minister Shoukry restated that the Egyptian Government must respect the separation of powers and cannot intervene in a case while it remains before the courts. The Egyptian Minister emphasised that the case is very firmly on the Egyptian President’s desk, and remained there because of the regular engagement from the Irish Government.