Ibrahim Halawa marks 1,000 days of detention in Egypt

Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa today marks 1,000 days of detention in Egypt after being arrested in 2013.

Mr Halawa, 20, is being prosecuted alongside 492 co-defendants in mass trial for allegedly participating in a political protest in 2013.

He was 17 at the time of his arrest and has been charged with serious offences, all of which he strongly denies. His lawyers believe that, if convicted, he may face the death penalty.

International human rights organisation Reprieve is assisting Mr Halawa and calling for his release.

It said it knew of children as young as six being arrested in the same breakup of protests as Mr Halawa. Efforts to have the case transferred to a juvenile court have so far been rejected.

Harriet McCulloch, deputy director of Reprieve’s death penalty team, said: “Ibrahim has now suffered 1000 days of appalling mistreatment in violation of both international and Egyptian law. It is a scandal that the Egyptian authorities continue to seek the death penalty for Ibrahim despite his having been a child at the time of his arrest.

“The Egyptian authorities must immediately call an end to this mass trial and others like it and release Ibrahim and the hundreds of others like him who have been illegally detained for so long.”