VZCZCXYZ0022
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #3334 3301613
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 261613Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7543
INFO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS CAIRO 003334 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
NSC STAFF FOR WATERS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KIRF PHUM PGOV EG
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS IDENTITY CONVICTION AND PRISON SENTENCE 
 
REF: 06 CAIRO 7164 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: On November 21, a Cairo criminal court 
sentenced an Egyptian Christian woman, Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 
to three years in prison for fraud regarding her religious 
identity.  The conviction stems from Ibrahim's father's brief 
conversion to Islam in 1962 and Ibrahim's subsequent 
declaration during her 1981 wedding that she was Christian. 
Ibrahim's lawyer advised us on November 25 that she is 
currently imprisoned and has little hope of being freed on 
appeal. End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  According to Ramses Al Najaar, Ibrahim's attorney, 
in 1964, when Ibrahim was 3 or 4 years old and living with 
her family in the Nile Delta village of Miet Ghamer, her 
father left the family and briefly converted from 
Christianity to Islam. Within a year, Ibrahim's father 
returned and reconverted to Christianity. According to 
Najaar, she was unaware of her father's conversion and was 
raised as a Christian.  In 1981, she married and stated on 
her marriage certificate that she was Christian. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  In 1996, a minor local official, who assisted 
Ibrahim's father years earlier in documenting his 
reconversion, was arrested for falsifying documents. During 
the investigation, Ibrahim's father also was arrested. In 
1997, Ibrahim and her sister, Bahiah Ibrahim, visited their 
father at the local jail. They told investigators that they 
were unaware of their father's conversion and that they had 
always been Christians. They were then accused of falsely 
claiming on official documents - Ibrahim's marriage 
certificate, Shadia's national identification card - to be 
Christians.  Following an investigation which the family 
thought had been closed, the two sisters were tried in 
absentia in 2000, convicted of fraud, and sentenced to three 
years in prison. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  No action was taken to enforce the 2000 conviction 
until August 26, 2007, when police arrested Ibrahim. In 
accordance with Egyptian criminal law, the court vacated the 
earlier conviction in absentia, and, on November 21, she was 
re-tried, convicted of fraud, and sentenced again to three 
years in prison, the maximum possible sentence. 
 
¶5. (SBU) On November 25, we met with Najaar.  He attributed 
the renewed prosecution of the case to the recent attention 
and controversy surrounding the issue of religious 
identification, something that is required on all official 
documents. The plight of Egypt's small Baha'i minority, who 
are unable to obtain national identification cards or other 
official documents, has drawn attention to the issue 
(reftel), as has the case of a number of reconverts to 
Christianity. Ibrahim's lawyer said that since the 2000 
conviction, Ibrahim has paid bribes to keep the public 
prosecutor from arresting her and enforcing the sentence. 
With the recent focus on the issue, the lawyer said bribes 
are no longer sufficient. Ibrahim's lawyer said he will file 
an appeal, but he has little hope that it will succeed.  She 
is currently imprisoned and the lawyer expects she will serve 
the full three-year sentence. 
 
¶6. (SBU) When we raised the case with the MFA on November 26, 
they claimed to be unaware of it but promised to look into 
it. We will follow-up closely. 
RICCIARDONE