August 6th, 2008 by Adam

In response to Saturday’s sentencing of leading democracy activist and member of POMED’s Board of Advisors Saad Eddin Ibrahim, POMED has issued a statement condemning “what has been an extended campaign to silence and demonize Ibrahim for exercising his right to criticize the Egyptian regime for its increasingly repressive practices.”

To read the full text of POMED’s statement, click here.

Also, there is now a Facebook group that has been created to express support for Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim at this difficult time.

The official statement from the State Department expresses disappointment about Dr. Ibrahim’s conviction.

An editorial in the Daily Star criticizes Egypt’s arrest of Dr. Ibrahim and admonishes the U.S. for issuing a weak statement in response to the conviction by saying, “The United States also betrayed a shallow commitment to its national principles….” The Daily News Egypt also reports on the controversy over the U.S. ambassador’s remarks on the conviction.

At the Middle East Strategy at Harvard, Michele Dunne writes a scathing piece about Ibrahim’s conviction and the possibility the courts may hear a case to strip him of his nationality. She says, “…that it is these very decisions that harm Egypt’s image far more than Saad has ever done.” In Tamara Cofman Wittes‘ comment on Dunne’s piece, she says the conviction and crackdown on media in Egypt is evidence of a decaying regime at its end.

Posted in Egypt, Human Rights |