Profile: Essam El Erian - a life behind bars

Essam Mohammed Hussein El Erian (1954) is an Egyptian physician and a political activist. He is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Council; and serves as vice chair of the Freedom and Justice Party.

El Erian graduated from the School of Medicine, Cairo University, in 1977 and received a Bachelors of Law from the same university 1992. He obtained a Master’s degree in Pathology in 1986 from Cairo University. He also obtained a BA in Islamic Studies and History from Al Azhar University in 1999.

El Erian has written extensively on Egyptian politics as well as Islamic and Arab affairs. He is a founding member of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and an associate member of the Arab Organization for Human Rights.

El Erian was arrested the first time for a period of one year, just before the assassination of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat from September of 1981 until August 1982

In 1995, El Erian was sentenced to five years with hard labour by a military court for his membership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In May 2006, he was detained and held in custody for seven months for supporting judges’ protests.

In July 2007 he was again arrested and held in detention until October of that year.

El Erian was arrested in January 2011 shortly before the overthrow of the former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

He was on arrested on 30 October, 2013.