(EOHR/IFEX) – On 18 March 2003, the Cassation Court acquitted Saad El Deen Ibrahim and two other members of the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Developmental Studies, Mohamed Hassanein and Nadia Ahmed Abd El Nour. Magda Ibrahim El Beh received a six-month suspended sentence. The verdict puts an end to the Ibn Kahaldoun Center case, which […]
(EOHR/IFEX) – On 18 March 2003, the Cassation Court acquitted Saad El Deen Ibrahim and two other members of the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Developmental Studies, Mohamed Hassanein and Nadia Ahmed Abd El Nour. Magda Ibrahim El Beh received a six-month suspended sentence. The verdict puts an end to the Ibn Kahaldoun Center case, which began on 30 June 2000, when security forces arrested Ibrahim and a number of other members of the center. The defendants faced charges of accepting foreign funds without permission, disseminating false information about Egypt, and forging electoral cards, among others.
A State Security Court had earlier sentenced Ibrahim to seven years in prison. EOHR’s lawyers applied to the Court of Cassation for a retrial and won. The 29 June 2002 retrial confirmed the sentence against Ibrahim and the other defendants.
The defendants sought and were granted a retrial on 3 December 2002. The case was heard on 7 January, 4 February, and 18 March. On the last date, the three defendants were acquitted.
While EOHR believes that judicial verdicts should not be commented on, the organisation welcomes the verdict of the Court of Cassation. EOHR calls upon the Egyptian authorities to withdraw the Emergency Law, and particularly Military Decree No.4 of 1992, which is based on the Emergency Law and is often used against civilians and civil society activists.
