{"id":21970,"date":"2015-12-19T01:43:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-19T01:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/egypt-rejects-europe-plea-for-release-of-irish\/"},"modified":"2015-12-19T01:42:59","modified_gmt":"2015-12-19T01:42:59","slug":"egypt-rejects-europe-plea-for-release-of-irish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/egypt-rejects-europe-plea-for-release-of-irish\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt rejects Europe plea for release of Irish-Egyptian teen"},"content":{"rendered":"

{CAIRO \u2014 Egypt has rejected a plea from the European Parliament to release an Irish-Egyptian teenager detained during a pro-Islamist protest in Cairo two years ago, and the Foreign Ministry said Friday the request amounted to a \u201cviolation of the independence\u201d of its judiciary.}<\/p>\n

In a harsh statement, Cairo also called on the European body to reconsider its approach to similar cases in the future.<\/p>\n

The exchange came ahead of the start of trial for Ibrahim Halawa, who along with 494 defendants faces charges of murder and vandalism.<\/p>\n

The defendants were all arrested in a 2013 protest in the Egyptian capital\u2019s central Ramsis Square against the military\u2019s overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and the violent dispersal in August that year of a sit-in by Morsi\u2019s supporters in Cairo\u2019s Rabaa al-Adawiya square, when hundreds of people were killed.<\/p>\n

The ministry also dismissed allegations that Halawa was tortured in custody and is on hunger strike. It refuted Europe\u2019s claim that he may face the death penalty, saying that Egyptian law does not impose capital punishment on offenders under 18.<\/p>\n

Halawa, who holds dual Egyptian and Irish nationalities, was 17 at the time of his arrest; now he is 19.<\/p>\n

Since Morsi\u2019s ouster, Egypt has launched a crackdown on the country\u2019s Islamists that saw hundreds killed and thousands thrown in jail. The security campaign swept up liberals and the young pro-democracy activists who spearheaded the 2011 popular that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.<\/p>\n

Egypt has been on the defense about its human rights record, with pro-state TV media framing any criticism of it as parts of a conspiracy to undermine the country\u2019s economic recovery from political turmoil and tarnish its image.<\/p>\n

The jailed teen had traveled to Egypt for a family vacation, according to the EU parliament.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International has said that Halawa was \u201cdetained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and assembly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The London-based rights group has also said that the mass trial with 494 individuals \u201ccannot meet international fair trial standards as all the defendants must be present in court in order to be able to hear and challenge the prosecution case and present a defence, in person or through a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Source:The Washington post:[Egypt rejects Europe plea for release of Irish-Egyptian teen->https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/europe\/egypt-rejects-european-call-for-release-of-irish-teenager\/2015\/12\/18\/8d8b3a2c-a5ad-11e5-8318-bd8caed8c588_story.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{CAIRO \u2014 Egypt has rejected a plea from the European Parliament to release an Irish-Egyptian teenager detained during a pro-Islamist protest in Cairo two years ago, and the Foreign Ministry said Friday the request amounted to a \u201cviolation of the independence\u201d of its judiciary.} In a harsh statement, Cairo also called on the European body […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000070954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2514],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-21970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-the-washington-post"],"bylines":[{"id":2514,"name":"The Washington Post","slug":"the-washington-post","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2514,"name":"The Washington Post","slug":"the-washington-post","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000070954,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21970.png","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/png","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21970.png","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21970.png","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21970.png","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21970.png","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21970.png","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000070954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21970"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=21970"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=21970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}