MEPs join State to save Dubliner, Ibrahim Halwa, from death penalty

On the eve of the trial of Irish-born Ibrahim Halawa, the European Parliament threw its weight behind the Government to save him from, potentially, the death penalty.

The 20-year-old Dubliner is on hunger strike in a jail in Cairo and is due to appear in court tomorrow, with around 400 others in a mass trial where the authorities insist he is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.

His sisters, Somaia and Omaima, were in the European Parliament in Strasbourg for the vote. They and another sister, Fatima, spent three months in jail after taking part in a protest following the overthrow of President Morsi in Cairo in August 2013. They were released after three months.