Ibrahim Halawa, the young
Irish citizen of Egyptian background, who’s languishing in an Egyptian jail,
may be sentenced in June despite the fact that he’s never gone on trial. That’s
according to the Sinn Fein MEP Lynn Boylan. She recently visited Egypt where
she brought up Ibrahim’s case. The 20-year old has been held in an Egyptian
prison since August 2013 after the Egyptian authorities claimed he took part in
violent protests in a mosque in Cairo. 
Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International say the claims
are false. Here’s Lynn Boylan.

Dur: 00:36 

The Sinn Fein MEP Lynn Boylan
has condemned what she’s calling the ‘frightening’ deterioration of human
rights in Egypt. Ms Boylan visited Egypt last weekend as part of a US led fact-finding
mission. The Dublin MEP says the situation has worsened considerably since her
visit to the country last August. She met a number of human rights activists
and relatives of prisoners over her 2-day trip there.

Dur: 00:29 

There are no guarantees that a beef deal will
remain permanently off the EU-Mercosur trade negotiations. That’s the warning
from the Independent MEP Marian Harkin. The Midlands North-West MEP was speaking
in the European Parliament where MEPs this week questioned the EU’s Trade
Commissioner on news that a beef deal had been withdrawn from trade
negotiations with the Mercosur states. However,
Marian Harkin says the South American states will put huge pressure on the EU to
put beef back on the Mercosur menu.

Dur: 00:31