PAST CAMPAIGNS - DR. SAAD EDDIN IBRAHIM

Freedom Now was retained to represent Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an internationally renowned sociologist and advocate of democracy and human rights, who is a professor at the American University in Cairo and the Director of the Ibn Khaldoun Center, a non-governmental research organization. On behalf of Dr. Ibrahim and his family, Freedom Now submitted a petition to the U.N. Working Group for Arbitrary Detention. This petition was but one voice in the chorus of vocal international support for Dr. Ibrahim. In fact, the support was so successful at putting pressure on the Egyptian government that he was released from prison even before the Working Group convened to consider the petition.
It has been a complex legal odyssey that has finally culminated in this happy news. Dr. Ibrahim and his 27 associates were first arrested on June 30, 2000, and were detained and interrogated in jail for 45 days, without formal charges. Eventually, he was accused and tried on charges that of criticizing the Egyptian government and activities that included registering people to vote and supporting the rights of Egyptian minorities.
On May 21, 2001, Dr. Ibrahim was sentenced to seven years in prison. His co-defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 1-5 years. The original sentence set off widespread protests from European countries and the United States, with President Bush warning that he might not deliver any new aid to Egypt, in protest of Dr. Ibrahim's prosecution. On February 6, 2002 - after more than 300 days in prison - Dr. Ibrahim and the five other jailed Ibn Khaldoun defendants were ordered released by Egypt's highest appeals court. The court ruled that the first trial in State Security court was improperly conducted, and ordered a retrial.
The retrial began on April 27, 2002 before a circuit of the High State Security Court, South Cairo District. The prosecution essentially retried the case unchanged from the first trial and asked for maximum sentences. Witnesses for the defense included some of Egypt's leading public figures, including a member of Egypt's Parliament. The defense also challenged the constitutionality of laws penalizing the 'tarnishing of Egypt's image abroad' and Military Orders issued under the provisions of Emergency Law. The constitutional challenge was prepared and presented by one of Egypt's most distinguished jurists, Dr. Awad el Morr, former chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Ten additional lawyers presented the defense case and submitted hundreds of pages of legal argument to the judges. The court took the unprecedented step of holding both day and night sessions, many ending after midnight. Despite this schedule of hearings, every trial session was attended by diplomats from European and North American embassies (at least three ambassadors attended over the course of this trial), as well as human rights organization representatives and foreign and local journalists.
On July 29, 2002, with fewer than twenty minutes of deliberation, the second trial ended before allowing the usual summary or rebuttal opportunity to either side. Dr. Ibrahim was sentenced to seven years in prison. A stunned courtroom watched as Dr. Ibrahim and three associates were quickly hauled off to unknown locations (A fourth was convicted in absentia). Three of the defendants, who had cooperated earlier with State Security interrogators, received suspended sentences and were immediately released.
The defendants were then held in a detention center for more than 48 hours, and no one was permitted access to them. Temperatures inside were reported to be well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and Dr. Ibrahim was denied access to the medical equipment he needs for his fragile physical health. They were later transferred to prisons to begin serving their sentences.
The Supreme State Security Court released its judicial ruling in the case on August 25, 2002 - almost a month after the defendants began serving their prison terms. Dr. Ibrahim's defense lawyers appealed the decision. In a critical turning point in the case, on December 3, 2002, the appeals court overturned Dr. Ibrahim's seven-year sentence, ordered a retrial for January, 2003, and released him from prison pending the retrial.
Finally, as of Tuesday, March 18, 2003, Dr. Ibrahim is a free man. After hearing this last verdict, he cried out "Thank God!, Thank God!" and the courtroom erupted in shouts of joy.