Ahmad Saif al-Islam

According to Amnesty International report from December 2008: "In 1999, Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamad founded with other human rights defenders the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre (HMLC). They named it after Hisham Mubarak, an Egyptian human rights lawyer who in 1994 decided to focus on providing legal assistance to victims of human rights violations....

"In 2006, Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamad was one of the defence lawyers for Karim Amer. The first Egyptian blogger to face criminal charges for publishing on the internet material that the authorities deemed critical of Egypt’s President and Islam, Karim Amer was convicted and jailed for four years.

"Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamad also acted as part of the legal defence team for 15 people charged with terrorism-related offences in connection with bomb attacks in October 2004 in Taba and other places in the Sinai Peninsula. He had travelled to the area after the authorities carried out hundreds of arrests in the wake of the bombings...

"Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamad also assisted in the legal defence of 52 men accused, in the so-called Queen Boat Case in 2001, on account of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. The men were accused of "habitual practice of debauchery", which is used to criminalize consensual same sex relations between adults in private.

"Currently, Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamad is one of the defence lawyers for 49 people who are being tried before the ESSSC in Tanta, north of Cairo, for alleged involvement in popular protests on 6 April 2008 in support of industrial action by textile workers in the city of Mahalla and which were marred by violence. The main prosecution evidence is confessions which the defendants allege were extracted under torture when they were held incommunicado in pre-trial detention. The verdict is due on 15 December 2008. If convicted, some defendants could be imprisoned for up to 15 years..."

His daughter is Mona Seif. [1]