THE TRIAL OF Ibrahim Halawa has been postponed for the 13th time and put back until 26 June.
It means the Irishman will have spent almost three years in jail without trial. He has already been imprisoned for 942 days.
The 20-year-old has already been jailed since August 2013 without his case being heard.
Halawa was jailed after he attended a Cairo demonstration supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been ousted from power by the Egyptian military.
The Muslim Brotherhood had won both parliamentary and presidential elections, but after further political unrest and violence, the military assumed control.
The Dublin teenager was arrested at a protest during the height of this instability and was charged along with 493 others. They were charged with offences including murder, attempted murder and participating in an illegal protest.
The repeated delaying of the trial is partly because the Egyptian courts are seeking to try him in a mass trial involving hundreds of people.
Amnesty International’s Irish director Colm O’Gorman has described the latest delay in his trial as “obscene”. The group also says that his arrest was “unlawful” and that he could not have committed the violent crimes with which is is charged.
“The farcical nature of the Egyptian legal system has again been highlighted as Ibrahim’s trial has been delayed for the thirteenth time,” O’Gorman said this afternoon.
During this time, this young Irish citizen has been living in truly horrific conditions in an Egyptian prison cell. Ibrahim is a prisoner of conscience detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
The European Parliament has also adopted a resolution seeking his immediate release and the Department of Foreign Affairs have been active in campaigning for his freedom.
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