Sentenced to prison, activist calls Egyptian leader vindictive

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, 69, was sentenced to two years in prison for "tarnishing Egypt's reputation"

Saad Eddin Ibrahim was sentenced to two years in prison for "tarnishing Egypt's reputation".

CAIRO // The conviction of Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian-American sociologist and political activist, might have come as a shock to many in Egypt, but for Mr Ibrahim it is just another sign of the regime's "vindictiveness" against him and other opposition figures. "The ruling wasn't very surprising," said Mr Ibrahim in a telephone interview from Turkey. "But when I was informed of the ruling - as I was attending a conference - it brought back memories of my first imprisonment [in 2001]. I was shaken for a couple of minutes, and speechless."

Mr Ibrahim, 69, was sentenced on Saturday to two years in prison for "tarnishing Egypt's reputation", ostensibly as a result of his worldwide campaign to draw attention to human rights violations and political repression in Egypt. He had gone into self exile in May 2007, basing himself in Qatar, but travelled widely to attend conferences and lobby the United States to put pressure on Egypt and make aid conditional on political reform in the country. In June last year he met with George W Bush, the US president, in Prague.

His activities prompted various individuals in Egypt, mainly members of the ruling National Democratic Party, which is headed by Hosni Mubarak, the president, to file civil cases against him, some demanding his nationality be annulled. Mr Ibrahim places the blame squarely on the president. "I can't believe the vindictiveness of this regime, of president Mubarak. No one can do this except him. "It's Mubarak who refused to release Ayman Nour last month," he said, referring to the opposition leader who has been imprisoned since Dec 2005 after contesting presidential elections that year.

Mr Nour was accused of forging documents for his party but denies the charges. Founder of the Ibn Khaldoun Centre for Development Studies and a former sociology professor at the American University in Cairo, Mr Ibrahim spent 10 months in prison between 2001-2003 for a variety of charges, including defaming Egypt's image abroad. Mr Ibrahim said it was over an article he wrote suggesting Gamal Mubarak, son of the president, would inherit the presidency.

"I was the first to write about the possibility of inheritance of power in Egypt," he said. "Since then, my troubles with this regime haven't ended." Mr Ibrahim was originally sentenced to seven years but was released on appeal, widely believed to be the outcome of US pressure on the government, which included the withholding of US$50 million (Dh184m) in aid. Mr Ibrahim's troubled relations with the Egyptian establishment date back to the rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser, who annulled his nationality in the 1960s after he called for an investigation into the reasons behind Egypt's defeat in the 1967 war with Israel.

Anwar Sadat, who came to power after Nasser died in 1970, restored Mr Ibrahim's nationality allowing him to return to the country from the United States, where he was studying, but before long he fell out of favour with Sadat after he opposed the 1979 peace deal with Israel, though he changed his stance in a book titled Retribution to Sadat in the late 1990s. His problems with the current regime began in 1994 when the authorities banned a conference at his Ibn Khaldoun centre titled Minorities in the Arab World, which aimed to discuss the sensitive issue of the status of Egypt's Christians. Shortly after this incident he visited Israel, triggering a media campaign - state-owned and independent - against him for being a "normaliser".

Moustafa Bakri, editor of the weekly al Osbou and an independent legislator, called for Mr Ibrahim to be publicly hanged when he was accused in 2000 of being an American agent. "Saad is filling the universe with noise and provocations demanding countries halt aid to Egypt," wrote Karam Gabr, chairman of the state-owned and staunchly pro-government Rose el Youssef. "Saad is causing a lot of harm to his country because aid goes to lots of services that benefit many Egyptians."

Rights groups expressed disappointment with Mr Ibrahim's sentence, but said it was consistent with growing political repression. "The 16 cases filed against Saad Eddin Ibrahim are political cases, which is an increasing phenomenon - lawyers affiliated with the NDP file lawsuits against journalists, editors of independent and opposition papers, accusing them of 'tarnishing Egypt's image'," said The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information in a statement.

"We might differ with Saad Eddin Ibrahim, who used to ride the plane with President Mubarak, but we can't agree on sentencing him to prison," said Wael Abdel Fattah, a columnist with the daily Al Destour. A US state department spokesman said of Mr Ibrahim's conviction: "Lawsuits should not be used to undermine the principles of freedom of expression. We strongly advocate - in all countries - the protection of civil and political rights, including freedom of speech and due process."

But Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, rejected foreign interference in Egypt's internal affairs. Mr Ibrahim was defiant of the charges against him and vowed to continue his activism. "The regime is in its last gasps, that's why it's so jittery and so insecure," he said. "This will go on as I'm not giving up, the regime is just pursuing its revenge." @Email:[e-mail]