Ibrahim, an outspoken critic of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime, was sentenced to two years in prison last August for “defaming Egypt.”
The verdict against the Egyptian-American sociologist was overturned on Monday, although the dissident is still under investigation on at least six other charges.
Ibrahim, 69, left Egypt in June 2007 and is currently in exile in the United States, where he is a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
His wife, Barbara Ibrahim, said her husband would likely not return to Egypt until all the cases against him were cleared.
“I admire his courage and I stand by his determination not to be silenced as so many other Egyptians have been,” she told TML.
“Having said that, it’s very hard on our family,” she said. “He has grandchildren here in Egypt whom he doesn’t get to see. It’s hard on all of us to be together as a family.”
She said she did not face difficulties in Egypt as his wife, in that most people in Egypt were treated as individuals and she did not feel she was being punished personally for her husband’s activities.
She has not seen her husband since April.
Ibrahim said it had been anticipated the verdict would be overturned last November, since the trial had so many technical and substantive problems, but every month the hearing of the appeal was postponed.
She said there was a probable link between the decision to overturn the verdict and the visit of United States President Barack Obama to Egypt at the beginning of June.
Cairo is keen to prove to Washington that it is improving its human-rights record and incorporating reform and democracy.
Egypt sees great importance in stressing this point, since Cairo receives a significant amount of monetary aid from the U.S.
Mubarak realizes his regime is being scrutinized on these matters, especially since there have been proposals in the U.S. Congress to condition aid to Egypt on proof of reform and democracy.
“I think what they’re signaling is a readiness to start over and improve relationships with Washington,” Barbara Ibrahim said.
Sa’ad A-Din Ibrahim, founder of the Ibn Khaldoun center for Development Studies in Egypt, is the most recognized Egyptian dissident, and has leveled criticism against the regime over its treatment of minorities, political prisoners and its human-rights record.
His wife said the charges against him would not stop him from questioning the regime’s policies.
“I don’t think he’ll ever stop,” she said. “I feel there’s the kind of change that he wants to see and that all of us want to see.”