Irish MEP wants EU representative to examine Halawa case

Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan is demanding that the EU high representative for foreign affairs Federica Mogherini meet with her to discuss the case of the Irish teenager Ibrahim Halawa.

He has been imprisoned in Egypt since August 2013, when he was detained during protests over the ousting of the then Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi.

His trial - along with 493 other suspects - has been postponed three times and is due back in court in Cairo on February 8.

MEP Lynn Boylan wants EU action to help secure his release.

"I have requested the high representative, Federica Mogherini, to meet with me twice now and I haven't yet received a response," she said.

"So it was a good opportunity to raise it again and to remind her that I have requested this meeting to put Ibrahim's case before and to see what can be done at a European level to bring Ibrahim home."