EGYPT - July 29 - Ibrahim Sentenced To 7 Years In Prison.

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a 63-year-old sociology professor at the American University in Cairo who holds dual US and Egyptian citizenship, is convicted a second time of tarnishing the country's image and other charges and is sentenced to 7 years in prison. (Ibrahim, an outspoken advocate of human rights and democracy, was sentenced in 2001 to seven years for embezzlement, receiving foreign funds without authorisation and tarnishing the country's image. An appeals court ordered a retrial, which began on Apr. 27 and ended with the July 29 verdict. At the heart of the case against Ibrahim were democracy-building grants totaling about $250,000 that his Bin Khaldun Centre for Development Studies received from the EU. The grants included money to monitor and encourage participation in legislative elections in 2000). Twenty-seven co-defendants, all staff members of Bin Khaldun Centre, are convicted of bribery and fraud charges. All but three receive one-year suspended sentences, similar to those they received in the first trial in 2001. Three others are sentenced to serve up to three years in prison. After the verdict was announced, Ibrahim said: "I am as determined to fight on as ever for freedom and democracy and pay whatever it takes". He said he would appeal one more time. US Charge d'Affaires in Cairo Gordon Gray issued a statement expressing "disappointment" at the verdict and reiterating US concerns about the "fairness of the process" against Ibrahim. Amnesty International strongly condemned the verdict and the trial. Negad Borai, a leading Egyptian lawyer and political reform advocate, said the verdict revealed "that Egyptian laws are autocratic by nature". Ibrahim's US-born wife, Barbara, called July 29 "the saddest day for Egypt that I have seen in the 27 years I lived in this country". Human rights organisations said the case against Ibrahim was aimed at limiting political debate.