Ibrahim Halawa flying home to Ireland after Egypt prison release

By Ed Carty PA

An Irishman released from an Egyptian jail after four years behind bars will be back home today.

Ibrahim Halawa was freed late last week, about a month after he was acquitted of all charges related to a mass Muslim Brotherhood protest in Cairo in 2013.

The 21-year-old, from Firhouse in Dublin, is flying back to Ireland with his sister, Nasaybi, and Ambassador to Egypt Sean O'Regan.

He is expected to have a private reunion with his family at Dublin Airport before meeting other well-wishers.

Mr Halawa's repatriation was delayed in part as new travel papers had to be issued for him.

He was jailed after being arrested in a mosque amid protests over the removal of the then Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi. He was one of almost 500 people in a protracted mass trial.

Mr Halawa, the son of prominent Dublin Muslim cleric Sheikh Hussein Halawa, was a student at the time.

His three sisters, Somaia, Fatima and Omaima, were also arrested during the crackdown on the 2013 protest but later released on bail and returned to Dublin. They were acquitted following trial in absentia.