An Egyptian-American academic was convicted a second time Monday of tarnishing Egypt's image and other charges and sentenced to seven years in a case international human rights organizations had condemned as politically motivated. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, 63, was sentenced last year to seven years for embezzlement, receiving foreign funds without authorization and tarnishing Egypt's image. An appeals court ordered a retrial on the same charges that began April 27 and ended with Monday's verdict.

Human rights groups in Egypt and abroad have condemned the case against Ibrahim, a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo, saying it was aimed at limiting political debate in Egypt. Ibrahim is an outspoken human rights and democracy advocate.

Ibrahim, wearing a blue T-shirt and sweating in the un-airconditioned courtroom - temperatures Monday in Cairo were in the 40 Celsius (over 100 Fahrenheit) - listened to the verdict without visible reaction. Later, he told The Associated Press he believed the verdict was "politically motivated" and said he would appeal again.

Eighteen co-defendants, all staff members of a think tank Ibrahim founded and ran, were convicted of bribery and fraud charges and received sentences ranging from one to three years Monday. Sentences for the 14 given one year each were suspended; of those, 12 had received suspended sentences in the previous trial and had not been attending retrial hearings.

Ibrahim and the four co-defendants who did not receive suspended sentences were handcuffed and taken immediately from the courtroom to a court house jail. They were expected to be transferred later Monday to a Cairo prison.

His wife expressed concern about her husband's health, saying he had not even brought his medication to court Monday because he had not been expecting a verdict. Ibrahim, who walked with the aid of a cane on Monday, suffers from a neurological disorder that prevents sufficient oxygen from reaching deeper recesses of the brain. He had earlier requested permission to travel abroad for treatment but never received a response from judicial authorities who seized his Egyptian and U.S. passports after he was first charged.

It was not immediately clear if the seven years Ibrahim received Monday was the total of different terms on each of the charges or if it was the longest of terms to be served concurrently. Court officials said a full explanation of the verdicts and sentences would be issued later, a common practice in Egypt.

In his closing arguments last week, prosecutor Sameh Seif told the State Security Court that Ibrahim was using funds raised through his think tank for personal gain and lured his staff into an embezzlement scheme.

At the heart of the case were democracy-building grants Ibrahim's think tank received from the European Union that included money to monitor and encourage participation in Egypt's legislative elections in 2000.

The European Union has said in an affidavit it did not believe its grants, which totaled about 252,000 euros, were misused by Ibrahim's Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies. One of the main defendants, Khaled Fayad, said he was forced during his imprisonment to falsely accuse Ibrahim of embezzlement.

Among the democracy projects was a documentary meant to encourage voting by, in part, noting that election fraud is less likely when citizens participate. Prosecutors claimed passages in the documentary showing problems with Egypt's electoral system tarnished Egypt's image.

Egypt's government is sensitive to criticism about the treatment of Coptic Christians in the country. A report Ibrahim did on the status of Copts in Egypt also was cited by prosecutors in their attempt to prove the tarnishing charge.

PHOTO CAPTION

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo who holds dual U.S.-Egyptian citizenship and is a high-profile human rights activist in Egypt, waits for his defence hearing session in a Cairo court cage Saturday, July 27, 2002. Ibrahim, 63, was sentenced last year to seven years in prison for embezzling funds from the European Union, receiving foreign funds without authorization and tarnishing Egypt's reputation. An appeals court ordered a retrial on the same charges that began April 27. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)