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Updated 6pm
FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER Charlie Flanagan has said that Ibrahim Halawa’s hunger strike is “unlikely to serve any positive purpose at all”.
Flanagan said that along with the Taoiseach he met with Halawa’s father and two sisters last week where they were informed by the family of the Irish teenager that he was considering going on hunger strike.
In a letter, which is quoted in today’s Irish Times, Halawa said he is refusing to eat until he is permitted to return to Ireland. He has spent almost two years in an Egyptian prison on charges related to taking part in a pro-Muslim Brotherhood rally.
His last trial was postponed for a seventh time earlier this month.
Flanagan told the Dáil this afternoon that he advised the family against the hunger strike and said this view was shared by Halawa’s lawyer and communicated to the 19-year-old.
TheJournal Politics / TwitterIn the #dail, @CharlieFlanagan says: "I am asking Ibrahim to maintain his health by taking food.”
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) June 11, 2015
The Fine Gael minister reiterated that the Department of Foreign Affairs is maintaining extensive contacts with Egyptian authorities at a high level. He insisted that it was “unrealistic” to expect Halawa to be released until his initial trial concludes.
Flanagan also said that comparisons with the case of freed Australian journalist Peter Greste were not accurate.
Greste, a journalist for Al Jazeera, was released earlier this year following the intervention of Australian prime minister Tony Abbott with Taoiseach Enda Kenny facing calls to make a similar intervention in the Halawa case.
But Flanagan said that in Greste’s case the trial had been concluded:
He had been convicted he had been sentenced… [it was] only when this concluded that authorities were in position to release him.
The minister said that to suggest that Greste was released because of a phone call is “simply wrong” and said it was important to note that different facts and circumstances apply to each case.
He said that Halawa’s trial must be completed “before any political consideration can take place”.
In his most recent letter, the 19 year old, from Tallaght in Dublin, wrote:
Where is human rights? When every morning I wake up to noises of torture knowing I can be next!Where is human rights when I have been thrown in prison for two years with no evidence? Where is the human right when I don’t see the light of the sun? Hit for every word I say that the officer doesn’t like, not allowed hug my own mother.
His sister Somaia told TheJournal.ie that he had “no other option” but to go on hunger strike.
He is fighting for his life. The prison he’s in is inhumane. He only sees his mum behind wires.
Sinn Féin deputy leader, Mary Lou McDonald, today called on Tánaiste Joan Burton to increase efforts to secure Ibrahim’s release.
Tánaiste, what would you if this was your child? You would go to hell and back to secure his release. You would be demanding that the Taoiseach pick up the phone and tell the Egyptian Prime Minister to release this Irish citizen.
The Halawa family say they have become increasingly concerned about his physical and mental wellbeing since the last adjournment.
The Cairo prison he is in is known as “the worst prison in Egypt” and prisoners have killed themselves to get away from the torture committed there, according to his sister Somaia.
In an earlier letter to his family in February, the teenager wrote that he believed the Irish government would “not work hard because I am not white or with me not having an Irish name or even because my religion”.
It is understood that this latest letter was smuggled out of the prison in which he is being held.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, in its most recent statement, said it is committed to seeing Ibrahim released by the Egyptian authorities.
Flanagan “has engaged actively and remains committed to taking all appropriate action to achieve a positive outcome for this young Irishman, Mr Halawa, and his family,” it said.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said he has written to the Taoiseach to ask him to intervene directly in the case.
It is imperative that the Irish Government exerts top-level pressure on Cairo to secure Ibrahim’s release. It is my firm belief that the Taoiseach needs to make direct contact with the Egyptian President and Prime Minister to appeal to them to release this Irish citizen.
- with reporting from Hugh O’Connell
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Buy loads of it now and sell it for €200 a can, when it’s discontinued.
@Kevin O’Brien: Or just don’t throw out the collection of several Christmas gifts gathering dust on the top of the wardrobe.
@Lance Taylor: shut up you toolbox
@Lance Taylor: relax, no need to get offended. Standard marketing practice. They’re not going to follow through on their threats. Just a way to get free advertising. Coca cola do something similar when they take over local brands.
@Lance Taylor: shut up you gee bag,,,
I must dig out my Harty Cup medal next time I plan to go dangerous driving and walloping innocent people. “Here you go, garda sir” I shall say, and all will be well.
@Peter Connaughton: Its a disgrace, this fella must be lighting a candle every night.
Total thug.
@Peter Connaughton: agreed. He’s pure fil th.
Some of these products are called Deodorants,some are called Anti Perspirants,others are called Body Sprays. I don’t care what they call them,as far as I’m concerned,they’re all a bunch of aerosols.
@Larry Betts: Not The Nine O’Clock News Swedish pharmacy sketch: “I want to buy deodorant please”. “Ball or aerosol?”. “No, it’s for my armpits.”
@Luas Vuitton – Penneys Drag Queen: I’m surprised I didn’t hear this before, but it’s a classic!
@Brian Hunt: on YouTube – Swedish Chemists Shop.
@Luas Vuitton – Penneys Drag Queen: Thank you.
Is this news?
@Padraig O’Brien: yes it’s news, it won’t make headline news on tv but a news app like this can report on tons more stuff such as these lighter stories. How that’s cleared that up.
@Padraig O’Brien: No, it’s an advertising campaign
@P. V. Aglue: with Mcgregor as brand ambassador.
@P. V. Aglue: My thoughts entirely!
@P. V. Aglue: it would have to change name first I would of thought
It is an awful smell in my opinion
@ANDY EARLEY: I Hear You’re A Racist Now, Father!
:)
@sakk sa: Take that back, you racist bigot
@ANDY EARLEY: cats pee!!!
Being replaced with Lynx Leitrim
@Dan The Man: With the more pungent essence of the farmyard!
Bad news for low effort present buyers.
Let me guess…Someone got offended by the name ?
@Ethan: Toto.
If anyone contacts you and offers a load of men’s deodorants at a discount,it’s a scam. Whatever you do,don’t click on any Lynx.
@Larry Betts: Beat me to it again Larry.
@Eamon: Of course it’s a scam. If you look very carefully at the map of Africa on the can,you can see the outline of Nigeria.
@Larry Betts: You’re wasting your time here Larry, you should be on stage!
Lynx Africa always has and always will be the mark of a gurrier.
@Alberto Balsam: yup. The smell of desperation and stale body odour.
I don’t particularly like it, but they are correct in saying that it’s an xmas gift staple.
I wore that stuff as a seventeen year old and I still have PTSD about the leaving cert if I smell it off anyone
Ah, the smell of my teenage years! Not so much me but the lads who never showered…lol
Java was for the country folk, Africa the Jackeens :)
“Africa” was a terrible name for it tbh. Admittedly, “Musk” has a much worse stink off it.
@Luas Vuitton – Penneys Drag Queen: Elon smells fishy
smells like getting me first fingering in Wez circa 2005
@Mr Sparkle: you were 45 at the time.
@Mr Sparkle: hope your ring recovered quickly
@Mr Sparkle: Ah yeah I remember you with all the lads.
@mcleixlip: recovery requires rest days unfortunately
@Mr Sparkle: did he take you for coffee afterwards?
@j m m: Yeah,it was hot and steamy on the kitchen table
Any chance of an aul article on how the pope is doing?
@Darth O’Leary: still alive,your welcome,,,
Racists.
Oh no that’s me skunked.
It’s rank stuff. The lynx oriental was waaay nicer smelling.
I Hear You’re A Racist Now, Father! -
Smells worse than Ireland is Full rally.
@Jacintha Dumbrell: Take a day off, please!
The new Lynx aroma will be “Carvery Gravy”. 2 Johnnies been testing it for two years now.
If they discontinue Lynx Africa the Lidl ‘rip-off brand’ Cien Kenya will be devastated.
@Karl Gallagher: I’d have thought Cien Kenya would get a boost!
Always thought it was strange name my Family on one side are from South Africa and it smells much nicer than this.
@Be Lucky: the toilet in the old Conlets park smelled nicer
Are Lynx tinkering with other scents? It seem to me they are. And what of the retail price? Some smkts charging e9 for 150ml? Get a life
@Donal Sweeney: Yes but it lasts 72 hours. Spray today,you won’t need to wash again til Monday.
Trying to remember four original scents when lynx was first released?
Oriental.
Musk.
Amber…… what else?
@j m m: “Skanger”?
@j m m: Fever?
@j m m: pussy,,,
Smells like Benin spirit.
I’ll get me coat.
Virgins around the world will be distraught
It’s not a deodorant. It’s at best a cheap Body Spray / Cologne
Lynx looks and tastes much better than that Brut stuff Every time i use the stuff i spray it into my eyes or my mouth first because as i cannot see the hole where the jet spray comes out of Long Live Lynx The anti persperant, The deoderent ,The eau de Cologne The eau de Toilette The under arm stuff Call it what you like
Bring back lynx tempest was fresh
Bink
Bad memories of teenage boys masking BO with this muck.
The article is piece of advertising material.
Oh, no surprises there, one knew all along what was happening, but sure that’s situation with big speculative events, it is what it is now, at least one, knows now what to do, going forward as along as one stays in honour, the other party has or one would wish that they, would acknowledge their actions or maybe non-actions, there’s always tomorrow, to see how situations play out!
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