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Letter of Appeal from the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

6 June 2001


His Excellency Mohammed Hosni Mubarak
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abdeen Palace
Cairo, Egypt
Fax: 011 20 2 390 1998


Your Excellency:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the largest organization of natural and social scientists in the United States, and the world's largest federation of scientific organizations, with 145,000 individual members and 300 affiliated groups. Our AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility was formed in 1976 to protect the human rights of scientists and to deal with issues relating to scientific freedom worldwide.

On behalf of the Committee, I am writing to express concern over the impropriety and illegality of the Egyptian Supreme Security Court's 21 May 2001 sentencing of Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim to seven years in prison for his human rights and democracy advocacy. It appears that Dr. Ibrahim was almost certainly improperly charged with accepting funds from the European Union without official permission, deliberately disseminating false information and malicious rumors about Egypt's internal affairs, and harming Egypt's image abroad. While the Ibn Khaldun Center may be critical of some Egyptian government policies, its activities are protected by various international treaties. If anything might damage Egypt's image abroad, it is the persecution of human rights defenders like Dr. Ibrahim.

It is my understanding that the evidence that was used to condemn Dr. Ibrahim includes thousands of pages of documents and information that were filed only hours before the Court's verdict was announced. I am concerned that this evidence did not receive proper consideration and that the judges arrived at a hasty and ill-founded conclusion of Dr. Ibrahim's guilt. The Court's three-judge panel reached its decision against Dr. Ibrahim only ninety minutes after defense lawyers finished their summations.

Furthermore, I am troubled that Dr. Ibrahim's trial was conducted in the High State Security Court, as this court suspends some of the usual rights and protections guaranteed in Egypt's civil court system, including the right to appeal. Dr. Ibrahim's trial in such a court violates international standards of fairness.

It appears that the charges against Dr. Ibrahim and his associates were a politically motivated effort to muzzle the democratic voice of the Ibn Khaldun Center, to stifle political dissent, and to intimidate human rights defenders. Suppressing legitimate political debate is in direct violation of several international treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Egypt ratified on 4 August 1967.

Persecution of human rights defenders violates several international human rights standards, including:

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: (ratified by Egypt on 4 August 1967)
· Article 19.1: Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
· Article 19.2: Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds.
· Article 14: Everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law.

The Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Defenders Declaration): (adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 8 March 1998)
· Article 6 protects the following rights:
· To know, seek, obtain, receive and hold information about all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
· To freely publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
· To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters.

I call on your good offices to ensure that there is an official and impartial judicial investigation into the trial of Dr. Ibrahim and his associates.


Sincerely,

Carole Nagengast, Ph.D., Chair
Committee on Scientific Freedom
and Responsibility


CC: The Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies (ICDS); Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer

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