Diplomats negotiate for siblings’ safe return

Diplomatic efforts were continuing last night in a bid to ensure the safety of four Irish-Egyptian siblings who were among protestors arrested in Cairo at the weekend.

The three Halawa sisters, Omaima, 21, Fatima, 23, and Soumaia, 27, and their brother, Ibrahim, 17, were met by chance by a Turkish diplomat who confirmed they were together and well, but the Irish embassy in Cairo was still trying to negotiate a face-to-face meeting with them.

The siblings, who are all Irish citizens from Firhouse in Dublin, have been in military custody since hundreds of protestors were cleared out of the el-Fateh mosque in Cairo, where they had taken refuge when violence erupted at a protest against last month’s military coup on Friday.