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Saad Eddin Ibrahim: Retrial Results in Second Conviction
July 31, 2002 (Updated August 26, 2002)
Egyptian-American academic Saad Eddin Ibrahim and several of his colleagues were convicted a second time by the Egyptian Supreme State Security Court on Monday, July 29, 2002. The verdict concluded a three-month retrial on charges that included accepting foreign funds without authorization, disseminating false information harmful to Egypt's interest, and embezzlement. Professor Ibrahim, a 63 year old sociology professor, director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, and advocate for democracy and human rights in Egypt, received the harshest sentence of all of the twenty-eight accused--seven years in prison. The verdict, which came quickly after defense lawyers had finished their arguments, has been criticized by international human rights organizations as being politically motivated. In accordance with Egyptian law, the court was allowed an additional thirty days within which to formally announced the grounds for the conviction.
On August 25, 2002, the Egyptian State Security Court announced, in a forty page ruling, the grounds for its conviction of Professor Ibrahim. According to initial observations from Democracy Egypt, the conviction was based, at least in part, on the original charges of accepting foreign funds without authorization and disseminating false information abroad. According to Ibrahim's family, an appeal to Egypt's Court of Cassation is being prepared. The appeal process could take up to a year or even longer. It was the Court of Cassation that ordered the retrial for Professor Ibrahim following his original conviction on the same charges in 2001.
Professor Ibrahim remains in Tura Mazra prison. According to his wife, who visited him on August 20, 2002, Professor Ibrahim was "in a subdued mood.... He wasn't walking very well and looked weak and tired." His neurological medical condition, which reportedly requires taking fourteen different medications each day, remains a concern. According to reports from Democracy Egypt, a highly regarded Egyptian physician examined Professor Ibrahim on August 7, 2002. On previous occasions, he has had medical tests and evaluations but, according to his family, other than continued physiotherapy "there is little more that can be done for him in Egypt." Ibrahim earlier requested permission to travel abroad for treatment but never received a response from judicial authorities, who seized his Egyptian and U.S. passports after he was first charged two years ago.
The presidents of the National Academies, in a letter to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, write they are "deeply distressed" that Ibrahim's second trial resulted in a conviction. "Professor Ibrahim is known to us and many of our members as a man of integrity and scholarly distinction," they note. "He has shown commitment to justice, human rights, democratic values and his native Egypt." To read the full text of the letter, click here.
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