Irishman writes of prison hell in Egypt as peers graduate

While his peers are busy getting ready to graduate from universities all across the country, a young Irish man has described being subjected to “physical and mental torture” in a crowded Egyptian prison.

In a handwritten letter seen by the Irish Examiner, 20-year-old Ibrahim Halawa describes the stark contrast between the lives of his former classmates and his own situation.

“Today has finally come, my graduation day, the day I have longed for, the day my parents invested their whole lives in to see me reach... while every graduate gets their hair done, I forcibly get my head shaved. While rough white clothes are my uniform, my fellow graduates are dressed in their best outfits,” he writes.