Human Rights Activist and Former DePauw Prof. Saad Eddin Ibrahim Returns to Egypt

June 16, 2003

June 16, 2003, Greencastle, Ind. - "Egypt's best-known human rights activist returned home from the United States, where he underwent spinal surgery, pledging to carry on his civil rights work," notes a story on Dow Jones Newswires. "Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian-American, went to the U.S. two months ago after being released from prison, where he had been serving a seven-year sentence on charges including tarnishing Egypt's image," states the article, which adds that Dr. Ibrahim "holds American and Egyptian citizenships and taught at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1967-1974." The professor returned to Cairo last Monday.

One of Ibrahim's first stops in America was at DePauw, where he visited with faculty, staff and current and former students on April 16. [DOWNLOAD VIDEO: "DePauw's Influence" 844KB] [DOWNLOAD AUDIO: "DePauw's Influence" 171KB] "I never realized that the brief period I spent at DePauw as a professor, as a young professor, would come back and prove to be so crucial -- both in terms of my life and in terms of the cause for which I went to prison," Ibrahim said during a media briefing at the Walden Inn on the DePauw campus (clips are also available online via Bloomington, Indiana PBS television affiliate WTIU's Web site here).

While in America, the 64-year-old Ibrahim, who is married to 1971 DePauw alumna Barbara (Lethem) Ibrahim (pictured at right), was also treated for "a deteriorating spinal condition that required surgery, which he could not have while in prison," Dow Jones Newswires notes. "It was a successful operation, thank God," Dr. Ibrahim says. "The surgery was very complicated and carried lots of risks ... It was a big decision to take." The article adds, "Ibrahim, who will be teaching sociology at the American University in Cairo this fall, said reopening the Ibn Khaldun Center tops his list of priorities." The professor and 27 of his colleagues at the Center, an independent think tank, were arrested in June 2000. Ibrahim was tried and convicted of tarnishing Egypt's image, embezzlement and accepting foreign money without government approval in court proceedings that received worldwide condemnation, including from the Bush administration. Egypt's highest court overturned the conviction in March.

You can access the Dow Jones Newswires story by clicking here (a subscription is required).

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