Report shows Egypt illegally detaining Ibrahim Halawa

Sinn Fein MEP, Lynn Boylan, calls for the immediate release of Ibrahim

Written by spunout

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Lynn Boylan MEP has called for the immediate release of Ibrahim Halawa on foot of a report from human rights lawyers from the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies that state he is being imprisoned illegally.

Sinn Fein MEP, Lynn Boylan, said: “A new report from the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) appears to expose an egregious miscarriage of justice against Ibrahim Halawa, and many others, by the Egyptian Government. The report states that Ibrahim and thousands of other peaceful protesters are being illegally imprisoned under the colonial-era ‘Assembly Law’ that CIHRS have discovered was repealed nearly a century ago.

“Although invalidated through a unanimous repeal by the Egyptian Parliament on January 30, 1928, Law 10 /1914, known as the Assembly Law, continues to be unlawfully exploited in tandem with the notorious Protest Law, passed in November 2013. It is astonishing that this law is being illegal implemented 89 years after its formal repeal in order to imprison thousands of peaceful demonstrators."

21 year old, Ibrahim Halawa has been unlawfully imprisoned in Egypt for 3 years since August 2013. During a family holiday to Egypt, Ibrahim and his three sisters Omaima, Fatima and Somaia went to a protest in Cairo. When the protest turned violent they took refuge in the Al Fath mosque. Security forces stormed the mosque, arresting the four siblings. Ibrahim’s sisters were released on bail; almost three years later, he remains in prison.

“On top of denying Ibrahim and other detainees a fair trial, it now appears to be the case that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has illegally imprisoned them, hiding behind British colonial administration law, originally designed to suppress Egyptian resistance to occupation. It is time that President Sisi takes the initiative to immediately renounce this historic and legal indignity by releasing every citizen deprived of their freedom under this unjust, obsolete law," added MEP Boylan.

“This new evidence alongside the existing avenues open to Ibrahim of the Presidential Decree and the Youth Prisoner Committee point to the fact that Enda Kenny needs to now act with some backbone. He must phone President Sisi and demand the immediate release of Ibrahim Halawa, instead of cowering behind letters and emails."

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