19 - 25 April 2001
Issue No.530
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 April 2001 Issue No.530 |
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Case for the defence
Lawyers defending NGO activist Saadeddin Ibrahim, arguing the case in court, claim the police had planted forged election cards on the defendant. Khaled Dawoud attended the hearings
A five-member defence team representing prominent NGO activist and sociology professor Saadeddin Ibrahim strove for two days this week to refute charges leveled by prosecutors against their client, claiming the case was mainly political. Ibrahim, who is also director of the Ibn Khaldoun Centre for Developmental Studies, has been on trial with 27 associates. The main charges are that they received funds from the European Union -- without government permission -- to finance a project to encourage Egyptians to vote in parliamentary elections.
The first five defendants, led by Ibrahim, are accused of "criminal complicity" for allegedly offering "bribes" to nearly 18 employees of state-owned television and radio to promote the EU-funded elections project. Prosecutors accused Ibrahim alone of receiving 261,000 euros from the EU without government permission in violation of a military decree issued in 1992. Part of the money went to a separate group, known as HADA, intended primarily to encourage women to vote, which was headed by Al-Ahram journalist Amina Shafiq. A witness in the case, Shafiq is not on trial. Ibrahim was treasurer of the women voters' group.
Prosecutors have also accused Ibrahim of spreading falsehoods outside of Egypt concerning the country's internal affairs. He is alleged to have said that elections in Egypt are rigged and that the Christian minority is discriminated against, statements which the prosecution claims damage the state's reputation.
Finally, the university professor was charged with embezzlement, allegedly having used the money from the EU for purposes other than those which he reported to the organisation. The Ibn Khaldoun Centre's director was said to have issued false cheques to employees working for the project and to have presented the EU with falsified voting cards as evidence that the project was fulfilling its goals.
Ibrahim Saleh, who leads Ibrahim's defence team, opened his presentation on Saturday by lashing out at State Security prosecutors for, he said, seeking to ruin his client's reputation before a conviction. Saleh questioned the grounds upon which prosecutors decided to put his client on trial, but determined to deal with Shafiq, director of HADA, as merely a witness. "They both received money from the EU and were well aware of the goals of the project," said Saleh.
Ibrahim's lawyer also brought up the case of Nebal Abdel-Nabi who worked with Shafiq at HADA and gave "detailed confessions" about Ibrahim's alleged wrongdoing. Saleh accused Abdel-Nabi of acting as a "state security agent." Although Abdel-Nabi is one of the 28 defendants on trial, she has not attended a single session since hearings opened late last year. Saleh went as far to claim that Abdel-Nabi was asked by State Security to take the forged voting cards to Ibrahim's home a few days before his arrest on 30 June. "The State Security agents knew exactly what they were looking for while searching Ibrahim's house, and the voting cards were the first thing they seized," Saleh told Chief Judge Mohamed Shalabi. Sentences issued by State Security courts cannot be appealed.
Saleh, as well as other lawyers defending Ibrahim, also claimed that their client was not directly responsible for all matters related to the joint project with the EU. They claimed that the third defendant, Khaled Fayad, was the one directly responsible for the project, insisting that he had proposed to Saad the idea of paying "rewards" to television employees to ensure support for the project's goals. Ahmed Talaat, another lawyer representing Ibrahim, claimed that Fayad went as far as to present false names of employees at the television and radio union and then kept the money himself. "Ibrahim was a victim of embezzlement himself, so how come he is now charged with criminal complicity?" Talaat queried.
Fayad told Al-Ahram Weekly that he was "pressured" during his imprisonment to falsely accuse Ibrahim of embezzlement. Turning to the military decree issued in 1992 which prohibits groups and individuals from receiving donations without government permission, the lawyers said that the decree was issued shortly after Egypt was hit by an earthquake and had nothing to do with the activities of a group such as Ibn Khaldoun.
"Ibn Khaldoun is not a non-governmental organisation (NGO), but is a limited civil company which pays taxes," Talaat said. He added that Ibn Khaldoun "did not receive any donations corresponding with those described by the military decree, but received funds in return for services it provided in line with an agreement with the EU." The lawyers sharply criticised the state's very use of military decrees. "What actually damages Egypt's reputation is not Ibrahim's activities, but the fact that Egypt has been ruled continuously by emergency laws for the past 20 years," Talaat told the court.
As for the charge of spreading false statements abroad, claiming elections were rigged and that Christians were mistreated, Ibrahim's lawyers presented to court dozens of articles appearing in local, Arab and foreign publications tackling the same subjects. "President Hosni Mubarak told reporters that the 2000 parliament elections were the best in recent years. This implies that the previous elections were not completely fair, and that was exactly what my defendant spoke about," Talaat added. He also cited scores of verdicts issued by the country's highest Court of Cassation as confirming the fact that rigging took place in at least 50 per cent of constituencies during the 1995 elections.
Abdel-Qader Hashem, another member of Ibrahim's defence team, said the defendant was on trial "because he transgressed acceptable boundaries by insisting on tackling issues which are considered taboo in Egypt: elections and Copts." He added that the Ibn Khaldoun Centre was working publicly since its establishment in 1988 according to the same principles that were now invoked to send it to trial: receiving funds from international groups to finance the centre's activities. "So what happened after all these years that suddenly required a crackdown on Ibrahim?" Hashem asked.
Speaking to the Weekly from the caged dock, Ibrahim denied that he has been seeking help from foreign contacts, mainly in Europe and the United States, to pressure the Egyptian government to release him. Ibrahim is a dual citizen of Egypt and the United States by virtue of his marriage to an American national. "I am an Egyptian and I have repeated since the beginning of this case that I wanted to be tried in this capacity."
However, several Congressmen and officials whom President Mubarak met during his last trip to Washington earlier this month reportedly raised Ibrahim's case. The US State Department's annual report on human rights in Egypt devoted a number of pages to this matter, claiming that it is mainly political.
On Tuesday, lawyers representing the other defendants started making their presentations. These are were expected to be concluded today, following which the court will determine a date for handing down sentences.
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