cture>
21-year-old Ibrahim Halawa from Firhouse in Dublin has today been released from prison in Egypt after being held since 2013 for involvement in protests against the then president Mohammed Mursi.
President Michael D. Higgins made this statement upon hearing the news:
The release of Ibrahim Halawa will come as a great relief to his family. It will be welcomed by all those who were concerned for him in his long ordeal of imprisonment. I wish Ibrahim Halawa well on his journey home.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also spoke of his delight at the Irishman's release:
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar welcomed news of Ibrahim Halawa's release from prison in Egypt pic.twitter.com/tgY9u3xZD4
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 20, 2017
A statement on the Free Ibrahim Halawa Facebook page read:
Fantastic news, Ibrahim has finally been released from prison. We will now begin to make arrangements to bring him home where he belongs in Ireland. We can't thank enough all those who worked so hard for Ibrahim's release, we owe you all so much.
Speaking on Rte's Morning Ireland minister Simon Coveney explained the process of getting Halawa back to Ireland:
We need to get that immigration stamp. In order to do that he needs to turn up in person at the immigration ministry.
The timing and problem with that is we are in the Egyptian weekend, which is Friday and Saturday. That office is not open on a Friday and has very limited opening on a Saturday so we are obviously working to get him home as quickly as possible but it will be either Sunday or Monday by the time he is home I suspect.
