08/02/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10042

EGYPTIAN ACTIVISTS JAILED

An Egyptian court has sentenced human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim [SAHD ehd-deen eeb-rah-HEEM] to seven years in prison. Also given prison terms were eighteen employees of his Ibn Khaldoun [ihb-n khahl-DOON] Center for Development Studies. Fourteen of the employees received suspended sentences. But four of them, along with Professor Ibrahim, were taken from the Cairo courtroom to jail.

This was the second trial for Professor Ibrahim and the co-defendants. In May 2001, they were found guilty on charges of receiving funds from a foreign entity -- the European Union -- embezzlement, fraud, and defaming Egypt. But after an international outcry, an appeals court ordered a retrial.

Professor Ibrahim holds Egyptian and United States citizenship. He has taught for many years at the American University in Cairo. Until the Egyptian government shut down the Ibn Khaldoun center two years ago, it was one of the most important organizations calling for greater democracy and human rights in the Middle East.

The arrests of Professor Ibrahim and his colleagues in June 2000 came after the center produced a film aimed at educating voters for Egypt’s parliamentary elections later that year. The film refers to complaints about fraud in previous elections. In fact, more than one-hundred losing candidates in the 1995 parliamentary elections filed such complaints, and most were upheld by Egyptian courts.

Many observers believe that Professor Ibrahim and his colleagues have been prosecuted and jailed for nothing more than promoting democracy and respect for fundamental rights in Egypt. And if this is so, they should be released immediately and allowed to get on with their lives.

As U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on July 4^th, America’s Independence Day, "People all over the world. . .want the same things that Americans want for their children: respect for their human rights, living in democracies, a better life for themselves and their children, a real say in the future of their country. They want increasingly the consent of the governed as their political model."

That applies to Egypt.