An Egyptian Sakharov
For years, Prof Eddin headed the Cairo-based Ibn-Khaldun Institute, which undertook, with the European Union's encouragement, pioneering studies on women and minority rights, as well as electoral practices, in Egypt. In a country where the president has been consistently re-elected with 97 percent of the vote since 1980, Eddin's institute is the only academic research organisation that dares to ask troubling questions about the way Egypt is run.
Two years ago, Prof Eddin, together with practically all of the Ibn-Khaldun Institute staff, were arrested and put on trial before a State Security Court on trumped-up charges. The allegations included financial irregularities, receiving EU funds without the proper ministerial authorisation, and "tarnishing Egypt's image."
Prof Eddin was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. After diplomatic pressure was applied by the United States (through his American-born wife, Prof Eddin holds US citizenship) and the EU, he was granted a re-trial. This ended days ago with the old verdict reaffirmed: seven years in prison.
Twenty-seven of the Institute's staff members also received jail sentences, and the Institute is now practically destroyed. Any dictator, from Saddam Hussein to Robert Mugabe, could take pride in this abuse of power. But because Mubarak regime's is considered moderate, pro-Western, and helpful in the context of Israeli-Palestinian relations, the West's response to this and other abuses remains muted. Indeed, the US Charge d'Affaires in Cairo expressed mere "disappointment" at the verdict response that gives understatement a bad name.
Responsible opposition
Since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington last year, America and the EU recognise (or say that they do) that the lack of legitimate channels of opposition in Arab countries pushes people who might otherwise be mere critics of governments into the arms of extreme Islamic fundamentalists. Saad Eddin Ibrahim is a liberal: he is also a staunch Egyptian and Arab nationalist. He has vehemently condemned Israeli policies vis--vis the Palestinians, and is a critic of many aspects of US foreign policy. But his has always been the voice of a responsible opposition.
Indeed, his is the type of voice that Egyptian civil society needs if there is ever to be a chance that the country's Pharaonic authoritarian regime symbolised by President Mubarak's high-handedness is to be reformed. Just because Mubarak's government persecutes Islamic terrorists, and is an ally in the war against fundamentalist extremism, is no reason to give him carte blanche to repress every attempt to open up Egyptian society.
Western intellectuals, who were instrumental in pressuring the Soviet Union in support of Andrei Sakharov, have been singularly quiet when it comes to Eddin. An Arab intellectual persecuted by an Arab regime, it seems, is nowhere near the top of their agenda.
But it is the EU that is proving most complicit. After all, it was the EU's effort to stimulate Egyptian civil society with its grant of funds to the Ibn-Khaldun Institute that incited Eddin's persecution. The EU's silence in the face of his arrest and imprisonment is shameful. For not just Eddin, but the values that the EU professes to uphold, have been on trial in Egypt, and they have been mocked by the Mubarak's regime idea of justice.
Europe must work promptly to overturn Eddin's conviction. The EU should consider blocking all its educational and cultural programmes in Egypt if the verdict on Eddin and his associates is not overturned and the Ibn Khaldun Institute not re-opened and restored to full vigor. Just as the fight for Andrei Sakharov was also a fight for an open society in Russia and thus helped dismantle communist tyranny, so the fight for Eddin's freedom is a fight to put an end to Egypt's oppressive authoritarian regime.
SHLOMO AVINERI is director of the Institute for European Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a former director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry.
