Government and family not advised of Ibrahim Halawa prison move

The Government was not informed of Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa’s move to a different prison in Egypt and neither was his family, Mr Halawa’s legal team has said.

Mr Halawa, 20, is being prosecuted alongside 419 co-defendants in mass trial for allegedly participating in a political protest in 2013.

He is the only Irish citizen among the group and was arrested in Cairo in August 2013 at the age of 17.

Belfast firm KRW Law said Mr Halawa “disappeared” from his cell at Tora Prison on Monday morning and the firm began making urgent enquiries that evening to find out where he was transferred.

The firm said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) subsequently told them that Egyptian authorities had given them confirmation that Mr Halawa remained in Tora prison.

It has since emerged that Mr Halawa was not in Tora prison but had been moved to Wadi Al Natroon Prison.

Solicitor Darragh Mackin of KRW Law told Irish Legal News: “It is extremely concerning that inaccurate information was provided to both the Irish Government, and by extension our client, as to the whereabouts of Ibrahim.

“To date there have been no reasons advanced as to why this inaccurate information was relayed, or why Ibrahim was moved in the first instance.”