CAIRO, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- The legal team of an American-Egyptian democracy activist made a last-ditch appeal to annul his prison sentence Thursday in a case that has become increasingly divisive toward bilateral relations.
Lawyers for Saad Eddin Ibrahim, 63, a sociologist at the American University in Cairo and the former director of a democracy-promoting non-governmental organization, have presented a 113-page appeal, which they says are "very confident" will free him, to the Cassation Court, Egypt's highest appellate court.
"(We) feel that there are very strong grounds for the Cassation Court to throw out this case," said Ibrahim's daughter Randa, who is among the lawyers working on his case. "The defense did not have the full right to defend itself and some evidence was not considered."
Ibrahim was first arrested in 2000 and charged with, among other things, embezzlement, illegally accepting funds from the European Union, and tarnishing Egypt's image abroad. Local human rights activists say the arrests were aimed at preventing Ibrahim and his colleagues from monitoring parliamentary elections through an NGO he founded, the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies.
Although he was given a seven-year sentence in 2001 amid an international outcry, an appeals court overturned that verdict and sent the case to a retrial.
But, on July 29, Ibrahim was again sentenced to seven years in prison in a rush verdict by a Cairo State Security court, drawing even louder international condemnation. Local and foreign observers say the case is politically motivated, aiming at crippling Egypt's frail human rights movement.
Last month, to protest the conviction, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the United States would not grant Egypt any additional aid. It was the first time Washington has publicly linked aid to Egypt with human rights issues, though the bulk of America's annual military and development aid package to Egypt, which amounts to nearly $2 billion per year, was not affected.
The Egyptian government has denounced the move, saying that Bush was interfering in Egypt's internal affairs and was questioning the integrity of its judicial system.
In the context of increasing public anger toward the United States for its support of Israel and policy toward Iraq, local newspapers have accused the United States of "hysteria" over the Ibrahim case.
"Egypt is a friend of the United States and has been for a long time," said the U.S. ambassador to Cairo on Egyptian television last month. "But it is fair to say that the case of Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim represents a matter of significant importance in our bilateral relations and an issue that we've had under discussion for some time. And we have not been shy about doing that even in public."
For Ibrahim's family, though, this diplomatic debacle has been another source of anguish.
"We felt that (Bush's announcement) was sending the wrong message," Randa Ibrahim said. "Ultimately it's going to hurt my father in public opinion."
