CAIRO: Another lawsuit was filed against human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim requesting to strip him of Egyptian citizenship, bringing the total number of lawsuits to 13, said Ibrahim’s lawyer Fatma Rabie.
Rabie, who is also a member of the Ibn Khaldun Center, told Daily News Egypt that the most recent lawsuit was filed on Monday morning by three members affiliated with “weak political parties. These include Al Ghad and the Social Solidarity party.
The lawsuit calls for Ibrahim to be stripped of his Egyptian nationality, says Rabie.
“They did this to garner support and dominance within their parties, which suffer from internal conflicts, she said.
The Egyptian-American sociologist professor at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies is accused of tarnishing Egypt’s reputation, insulting President Hosni Mubarak, spreading rumors about the status of human rights as well as harming the national economy.
According to Rabie, these lawsuits were filed after Ibrahim’s speech at a conference on democracy and reform in the Arab world in Doha, May 2007. The problem escalated after Ibrahim met President George W. Bush at the Conference on Democracy and Security in Prague.
Ibrahim spoke about the deteriorating status of human rights in Egypt, asking the American government to make sure its aid to Egypt goes towards development and nothing else.
Earlier this year, members of the US House of Representatives introduced legislation that would withhold $200 million in military aid from Egypt to pressure the government to crack down on human rights violators, among other issues.
Ibrahim’s opponents say this drastic move by the US was a result of his speeches about the state of human rights in Egypt.
Rabie said she is pessimistic about these trials ending any time soon because “the crisis is political more than it is legal.
Barbara Lethem Ibrahim – director of AUC’s Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, regional director for West Asia and North Africa at the Population Council, and Ibrahim’s wife – told Daily News Egypt that the main charge against her husband is “intentionally harming the economic interest of the state.
According to Barbara Ibrahim, her husband’s writings – encouraging donor nations to call for an end to human rights violations in Egypt and not to sign “blank checks without knowing where their aid goes – are the main reason behind these lawsuits.
Barbara Ibrahim said that all Egyptians are demanding the same things her husband is calling for, “simply, a better human rights’ status. However, she said, “He is the only one brave enough to [openly] ask for it.
As for the latest lawsuit, Barbara Ibrahim said there is no law that gives any authority the power to strip any citizen of their nationality.
Ibrahim was arrested in 2000 on charges that were viewed as politically motivated. He was accused of receiving foreign funds without permission from the Egyptian government and for tarnishing Egypt’s reputation abroad.
Ibrahim was sentenced to seven years of hard labor by an Egyptian military court, but was freed after winning an appeal in 2003.
