Concerns over Egyptian sentence

Is Egypt committed to democracy?

By our Middle East correspondent Frank Gardner

The US government and the European Union say they are 'deeply troubled' by the harsh sentences handed down last week by an Egyptian court to a prominent civil rights campaigner, Dr Saad El-Din Ibrahim, who has been sentenced to seven years in prison. Six of his colleagues have also been jailed.

It's hard to describe the level of disbelief, shock, outrage in the court at that moment

Barbara Ibrahim

International human rights bodies have said the trial was politically motivated and the case is being seen as a serious blow to democracy in Egypt.

Money from Europe

The Egyptian government says he damaged the country's reputation.

The government's charge is that his Ibn Khaldoun Centre for Democracy illegally accepted money from abroad.

The donor was the European Commission. It paid just over 300,000 dollars towards two projects, aimed at educating Egyptian voters.

The EU says there was nothing underhand about this. Sweden, which is currently president of the EU, has voiced Europe's deep concern about the sentencing.

Democracy campaigner

But human rights campaigners say Dr Ibrahim's arrest was seen as the reaction of a nervous government, bent on discouraging any serious challenge to its hold on power.

It's clearly a political trial. This is political prosecution.

Hisham Kassem, Editor, Cairo Times

Dr Ibrahim was concerned about widespread fraud and violence in the 1995 Egyptian elections.

At the time of his arrest last summer, he was working to make sure it didn't happen again in the elections of November.

Egypt's Foreign Minister denied on Wednesday that it was a political trial.

Ahmed Maher said Dr Ibrahim and his co-defendants had every right to appeal.

But whether they are successful or not, the case has already damaged Egypt's reputation.

This moderate Arab country, the first to make peace with Israel, appears to have a very narrow definition of democracy.