Exiled activist demands government assurances for return to Egypt

Egyptian rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim has written a letter to his country’s foreign minister expressing his intent to return to Egypt, but demanding assurances that we will not be arrested, the independent daily Al-Masri al-Yom reported on June 28.

Ibrahim, who has been charged with undermining the national interest and has spent several months in exile, says he has not received a formal response from the Egyptian government.

According to the article, Ibrahim’s letter also demanded “a declaration that the Presidency and the government were not a party in the legal disputes against him being considered by Egyptian courts.”

Ibrahim says Cairo has targeted him for his criticisms of the government of President Hosni Mubarak and his comments on the possibility that Mubarak’s son, Gamal, could succeed his father in office.

“Since I left Egypt, I have been verbally harassed by the Egyptian regime, especially in the international forums I have taken part in,” Ibrahim said. “Egyptian embassies, in fact, send their delegates to these forums specifically to attack me and deny what I say, which is often about the future of democracy in Egypt.”

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