A former cellmate of Ibrahim Halawa has called on the Government to act to assist in the release of the Irish man.

In a letter to the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste said Mr Halawa (20) was no way a "violent terrorist" or a threat to society.

Greste said he was “increasingly alarmed as the trial and the efforts to have him freed have dragged on without success, and I now feel compelled to get personally involved. I know there has been much public debate in Ireland around Ibrahim’s motives and his family’s background, and there are two things I’d like to say in this regard.

“Firstly, although I wasn’t in Rabaa Square when Ibrahim was arrested, everything I learned about him in prison suggests that while he might be an idealistic young man with strong political ideas, he is in no way a violent ‘terrorist’, much less a threat to any society, and I saw nothing to substantiate any of the allegations against him.

“Secondly – and more importantly – his ethnic origins have obscured the far more important need to address the way Ibrahim’s most basic rights as an Irish and European citizen have been denied.”

Greste was one of three Al Jazeera journalists arrested and jailed in Egypt in 2014 on terrorism charges. He shared a cell with Mr Halawa, who has been in prison for over three years without trial.

Greste said there was no evidence to suggest Mr Halawa was doing anything “other than exercising his constitutional right to free speech”.

“He has been held in conditions that are far worse than any internationally-accepted standards for prisoners.”

The Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs is to meet today, and had invited the Egyptian ambassador to Ireland, Soha Gendi, to appear before it.

However, Ms Gendi has not formally responded to the request by the committee. In a letter to the Ceann Comhairle she indicated she would not be in a position to attend the meeting.