Price for democracy: 7 years in Jail!

[Ezra]

Cheer up and feel safe and superior. As long as you hear such news about your neighbors, you will ALWAYS be safe and superior to them, Israel.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/....ap/index.html


Professor jailed in Egypt image case

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- An Egyptian-American academic has lost his appeal against a seven-year jail sentence imposed after he was convicted of tarnishing Egypt's reputation.

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, 63, was originally sentenced last year for embezzlement, receiving foreign funds without authorisation and tarnishing Egypt's reputation.

The case has been condemned as politically motivated by Egyptian human rights organisations.

They said the case against Ibrahim, a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo and an outspoken human rights advocate, was aimed at limiting political debate in Egypt.

Ibrahim listened to the verdict without visible reaction. He believed the verdict was "politically motivated" and told Associated Press he would appeal again.

"I am as determined to fight on as ever for freedom and democracy and pay whatever it takes," he said.

Negad Borai, a leading lawyer and political reform advocate, said the outcome revealed serious problems in Egypt.

"This case shows that Egyptian laws are autocratic by nature and that they need to be revised in a way that guarantees the freedom of human rights activists in Egypt," Borai said.

The focus of the case was a grant, from the European Union to a think tank Ibrahim funded and ran, including money to monitor and encourage participation in Egypt's legislative elections in 2000.

Among the projects carried out under the grant was a documentary meant to encourage voting by, in part, noting that election fraud is less likely when citizens participate.

Prosecutors alleged passages in the documentary showed problems with Egypt's electoral system and damaged Egypt's image.

Six co-defendants, all staff members of the think tank, were convicted of bribery and fraud charges and received sentences ranging from one to three years. The one-year sentences were suspended by the court.

Court officials said a full explanation of the verdicts and sentences against Ibrahim would be issued later, a common practice in Egypt.

Egypt's government is sensitive to criticism about the treatment of Coptic Christians in the country, and a report Ibrahim compiled on the status of Copts in Egypt was also used by prosecutors during the tarnishing case.

The European Union has said in an affidavit it did not believe its grants, which totalled about 250,000 euros, were misused.

[Vic]

Superior, yes, but safe???

More on the affair: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/egypt/links.htm

[thatwhy]

US robbery case and murder case already one of the top in the world. Terrorist attack ? I am pretty sure a place where everyone own a gun. You, people have already use to this kind of life.

So why worry about terrorist attack ?

[elke]

Originally posted by thatwhy
US robbery case and murder case already one of the top in the world. Terrorist attack ? I am pretty sure a place where everyone own a gun. You, people have already use to this kind of life.

So why worry about terrorist attack ?

That's a misconception, Thatwhy. I don't know how the robbery and murder rates in the US compare to those in other countries, but it's certainly not true that everyone here owns a gun or is afraid for their life all the time. The crime is concentrated in certain areas, where drug addicts hang out. You can't even say that one should avoid all "poor" areas: many of these are fine during the day.

[cerulean]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...=1027506435115
Aug. 4, 2002
An Egyptian Andrei Sakharov
By SHLOMO AVINERI

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The article points out the lack of Western interest in his case. This despite the fact that twenty-seven people from his institute, plus Ibrahim himself, were jailed. The article says Ibrahim has US citizenship also. The EU funded Ibrahim's institute.

[cerulean]

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/04/opinion/04FRIE.html
Bush's Shame
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Watching the pathetic, mealy-mouthed response of President Bush and his State Department to Egypt's decision to sentence the leading Egyptian democracy advocate to seven years in prison leaves one wondering whether the whole Bush foreign policy team isn't just a big bunch of phonies. Shame on all of them.

Since Sept. 11 all we've heard out of this Bush team is how illegitimate violence is as a tool of diplomacy or politics, and how critical it is to oust Saddam Hussein in order to bring democracy to the Arab world. Yet last week, when a kangaroo court in Egypt, apparently acting on orders from President Hosni Mubarak, sentenced an ill, 63-year-old Saad Eddin Ibrahim to seven years at "hard labor" for promoting democracy — for promoting the peaceful alternative to fundamentalist violence — the Bush-Cheney team sat on its hands.
[...]
Mr. Ibrahim's "crime" was that his institute at the American University in Cairo was helping to teach Egyptians how to register to vote, how to fill out a ballot and how to monitor elections. The Egyptian court accused him of embezzling funds from the European Union, which supported his efforts. The outraged E.U. said no such thing ever happened.
...
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So is there a good reason for continuing to try to keep Egypt as an "ally"? Should the US give up on this whole business of trying to have Arab "allies"? Has it ever worked?