Egypt Rejects Europe Plea to Release Irish-Egyptian prisoner

Egypt rejected a European Parliament resolution calling for the immediate release of Egyptian-Irish prisoner Ibrahim Halawa, which Egypt described as an “unacceptable infringement on the independence of the Egyptian judiciary.”

In a statement issued by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Friday, spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said that the European Parliament resolution issued on Thursday contains false information.

The resolution, which was put forward by Irish MEPs and states that Halawa could face the death penalty in Egypt, passed by 566 votes to 11.

However, Egypt’s FM spokesperson denied that Halawa could face the death penalty since at the time of his arrest he was under the age of 18, and according to the Egyptian law, minors cannot be sentenced to death.

The statement has also condemned the European parliament resolution for claiming that the inmate was subjected to torture inside the Egyptian prisons.

“Many Irish officials have visited Halawa during the past years, and there have been 48 official visits by the Irish embassy,” says Abu Zeid.

The now-20-year-old Halawa was arrested in August 2013 in a case known in the Egyptian media as the “Al-Fatah Mosque incident,” where supporters of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood organised a standoff at the mosque two days following the dispersal of the largest sit-in supporting ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

Security forces had arrested almost all the protestors on the same day.

source: Ahram Online