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THERE was further woe yesterday for the family of Dublin teenager Ibrahim Halawa, after an Egyptian court postponed his trial for the seventh time, sentencing the young man to hang around waiting to be tried while interned in one of the worst prisons in the state.

Halawa, who is exempt from help by the Irish government due to not being called Fintan or Cathal or Sean or Proinsias, is awaiting trial for his part in a 2013 protest in Cairo.

The Tallaght native was arrested along with 493 others as they sought refuge in a mosque from the swelling violence outside. Ibrahim had been on holiday in Egypt at the time following the completion of his Leaving Cert, and has spent nearly two years in jail without trial.

“Look, it takes time to build a single case against that many people all at once,” said Egyptian Justice spokesperson Ahmed Ghalazeh, when discussing the mass trial involving Ibrahim.

“We’ve never judged 494 people in one go, so we want to be sure not to fuck it up. If that means leaving young men and women languishing in a rotting prison for years without a hearing, then so be it. They have been sentenced to hang around and wait until we get it right, whether that takes months or that takes years”.

If he is found guilty of whatever the fuck 494 people are accused of doing while locked in a mosque during a riot, Ibrahim faces the death penalty.

With Irish politicians showing little concern for a young man from a religious minority that doesn’t vote all that often, many believe that Ibrahim’s only hope lies in a campaign by Amnesty International, which you can learn about here.