AN Egyptian academic paid the price yesterday for pursuing democratic values in a country where political dissent can be treated as a crime.

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, 63, a sociology professor and human rights advocate whose work has been backed to the tune of 252,000 (£158,000) by the EU, was sentenced to seven years in prison by a Cairo court.

He was accused of embezzlement, receiving foreign funds without authorisation and "tarnishing Egypt’s image".

But at the heart of the case were EU grants to his political think-tank, including money to monitor and encourage voting in Egypt’s latest parliamentary elections in 2000.

The prosecution, his supporters said, was aimed at limiting political debate in Egypt. His research has explored such sensitive subjects as electoral fraud and the treatment of mostly Muslim Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority.

Egypt’s government is sensitive to criticism about the treatment of Coptic Christians in the country. A report Dr. Ibrahim did on the status of Copts was also cited by prosecutors.

In June 2000, Dr. Ibrahim wrote a magazine article on "the Arab world’s contribution to political science" that looked at how Arab leaders paved the way for their sons to succeed them. He suggested, tongue-in-cheek, that Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, might like a son for a successor. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested and held for 42 days before being charged with the crimes that formed the basis of yesterday’s verdict.