Irish National Caucus Welcomes Acquittal of Ibrahim Halawa
Posted By: September 19, 2017
Caucus had campaigned for his release
CAPITOL HILL. Tuesday, September 19, 2017—— Irish-Americans have welcomed the acquittal of a young Dublin Muslim who had spent four years in a Cairo jail.
Ibrahim Halawa, an Irish teenager, was on a family holiday in Egypt when he became caught up in the chaos that engulfed the country in the summer of 2013. The 17-year- old and his three older sisters were arrested and charged with the most serious offenses, including murder, arising out of a protest at Ramses Square, Cairo. Ibrahim’s sisters were released shortly after their detention.
Yesterday, September 18, Mr. Halawa — now 21, from Firhouse, a suburb in South Dublin— was cleared of all charges.
Fr. Sean Mc Manus said: “Irish-Americans greatly welcome the acquittal of this young Dublin man. We have long campaigned for the release of the many Catholics who were unjustly imprisoned by the British Government in Northern Ireland and England. So, we equally had to campaign for the release of this young Muslim who was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and unjustly imprisoned for four years.”
The Caucus had been contacted in May by Ibrahim Halawa’s attorney, Darragh Mackin, of the Kevin Winters Law Firm, Belfast— and asked to help via his “Petition to Irish National Caucus on Behalf of Ibrahim Halawa.”
Fr. Mc Manus had lobbied the U.S. Congress and the Egyptian Embassy in Washington stating: “How can such an obvious injustice be of benefit to the Egyptian Embassy in Washington? Surely, the Egyptian Embassy has no interest in being seen as colluding with the oppression of a young Irish person who was falsely imprisoned while still a teenager. I appeal to Members of Congress and to the Egyptian Embassy to help to restore Ibrahim to his family in Dublin.”
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