
Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim’s sentence to two years hard labor for “defaming Egypt”–based on his criticism of President Mubarak’s poor human rights record–was overturned in May 2009, just before President Obama’s state visit to Cairo. For the second time, CCS and others advocated on behalf of the eminent sociologist, who founded the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies in Cairo. Between 2000 and 2003, Dr. Ibrahim and twenty-seven employees of the Center were detained and prosecuted. It took three years and multiple appeals before Egypt’s Court of Cassation acquitted them of all charges and rebuked those responsible. Becuse of other pending charges, Dr. Ibrahim, 71, still may not return to Egypt.