I'm joined now by the Ambassador in London, His Excellency Hatem Seif El Nasr.
"I know that you hope that Seif will be a good solution, " he writes.
Mr Seif and the 11 others were later sentenced to another two-and-a-half years in prison.
Fortunately for Seif, his main rivals have been busy counting themselves out of the running.
Born in 1946 in Damascus, Mr Seif was a prominent industrialist before he decided to enter politics.
Mr Seif's political career began in 1994 when he won a seat in the People's Assembly, Syria's parliament.
The best known of these organisers is Riad Seif, one of the handful of independent members of Syria's parliament.
Mr Seif is still holding seminars in his home, but attendance has dropped.
The whereabouts of the colonel's most prominent son, Seif, are not yet known.
Jibril was a top aide to Seif-Islam, one of Gadhafi's sons and heir apparent, before he defected to the rebels.
"A campaign was started against metal music and we were labelled as Satanists and evil, " says Wyvern drummer Seif El-Din Moussa.
Following his release in January 2006, Mr Seif complained that he was being subjected to harassment and ill-treatment by the authorities.
This support enhanced Col Ojukwu's popularity in East Africa and the conflict captivated the region, says BBC Swahili Service analyst Idd Seif.
Mr Karume got 53% against 46% for CUF (Civic United Front) candidate Seif Sharif Hamad, said Zanzibar Electoral Commission chairman Masauni Yussuf Massauni.
The new body had been proposed by Mr Seif with the backing of the US, which had signalled its frustration with the SNC.
Mr Qaddafi's second-eldest son, Seif-ul-Islam, provides a further impetus for change.
The group, formed after a week of talks in Doha, will have two vice-presidents - prominent dissident Riad Seif and leading secular activist Suhair al-Atassi.
Mr Mekdad was accompanied by the Arab League's Assistant Secretary General, Samir Seif al-Yazal, who said the nine-strong advance team of monitors would not be deterred.
Mr Seif's latest initiative is a proposal to set up a new leadership body to unite the various opposition factions in Syria as well as abroad.
Veteran dissident Riad Seif is a widely respected figure among Syria's opposition groups, known for more than a decade of his activism against President Bashar al-Assad.
At the same time, Mr Mahfouz struck up a close working friendship with Salah Abu Seif, who was to be one of Egypt's most prolific film directors.
The most famous of the forums is now run by an outspoken MP, Riad Seif, who says he is planning to resume its activities next month - with or without permission.
Seif al Islam, Colonel Qaddafi's 26-year-old son who keeps Bengal tigers as pets, staged a press conference in which he reiterated Libya's support for the Muslim struggle for autonomy in the southern Philippines.
Seif al-Hourani, an activist from a rebel group which reportedly helped the man and his family out of the country, told AP news agency via Skype that the escape had been planned for months.
Not long after Mr Assad succeeded his father Hafez as president in June 2000, Mr Seif, along with almost 100 intellectuals, signed an open letter calling for an end to emergency law and advocating political freedom.
In January 2008, Mr Seif was among a group of 12 people arrested after they tried to revive the Damascus Declaration, an unauthorised coalition of political parties, human rights organisations and pro-democracy activists named after a document signed in 2005.
Mr Seif attracted attention in May that year when he published a report calling for a parliamentary investigation into "irregularities" in the awarding of mobile phone licences to Bashar al-Assad's first cousin, Rami Makhlouf, now one of Syria's richest men.
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