Ahmed Seif El-Islam dies at 63; Mideast human rights advocate
Ahmed Seif El-Islam, a prominent human rights advocate in Egypt and the Middle East, died Wednesday in Cairo. He was 63.
The activist lawyer had been in a coma at an intensive care unit after a heart attack almost two weeks ago.
During a long career of activism, Seif El-Islam was arrested no fewer than four times since the 1970s, including two arrests under the rule of former President Anwar Sadat and twice under Hosni Mubarak’s rule.
His life’s turning point came after his arrest and torture at the hands of state security officers in 1983 for taking part in a socialist movement. He was detained for five years and upon his release decided to dedicate his life to human rights causes in Egypt.
He was also arrested in 2011 during the 18-day uprising that led to Mubarak’s ouster.
“Torture is a form of cancer that can eat up a country’s youth and stifle its ability to change, criticize, reform and rebel,” Seif El-Islam told Amnesty International in 2008 when recalling his imprisonment in the 1980s.
In 1999, Seif El-Islam co-founded the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, which was the first of its kind in Egypt to support victims of torture and human rights violations.
Despite his secular orientation, he led a group of lawyers who defended 15 Islamist defendants accused of carrying out deadly bombings in the Sinai Peninsula that killed 34 people in 2004. Although he strongly condemned the bombings, Seif El-Islam was adamant that the accused deserve a fair trial, and he vigorously criticized their torture during arrest.
He was one of the defense lawyers for 49 people who were arrested in the cities of Tanta and Mahalla in the Nile Delta after their alleged role in the 2008 workers’ unrest, which was regarded by many as a first spark of the 2011 revolution against Mubarak.
The lawyer, whose full name was Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamad, is succeeded by a family of activists, including his wife, Laila Soueif,, son Alaa, and daughters Mona and Sanaa. He is also the brother-in-law of prominent Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif.
His son Alaa and daughter Sanaa are currently jailed for breaching Egypt’s new protests law. Last week, they were allowed out of prison to see their ailing father one last time.
Alaa is among a group of political detainees who recently started a hunger strike to protest their imprisonment.
Hassan is a special correspondent.
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