Ahmed Seif el-Islam, Leading Light of Egypt Human Rights, Has Died

August 29, 2014

(The Guardian) – One of the father figures of Egyptian social activism, Ahmed Seif el-Islam, died on Wednesday aged 63. He had been in coma for several days following heart surgery. A leading human rights lawyer whose career spanned four decades, Seif el-Islam worked on several of “the most important human rights-related cases in the country”, according to Amnesty International. A tireless opponent of former dictator Hosni Mubarak, Seif el-Islam defended Karim Amer, the first Egyptian blogger to be tried for his writings on the internet. He also fought for dozens of protesters arrested during Egypt’s 2008 workers’ strikes, a set of demonstrations that set the seeds for the 2011 revolution that eventually toppled Mubarak.