Ayman Nour Biography

Ayman Nour

Ayman Nour was born on the 5 th of December 1964 to a father who was a lawyer and a Member of Parliament (MP) and a mother who established and supervised a number of charity projects in his birth town Mansurah.

He started his political career as a student activist during high school and University; and was elected as President for the Egyptian High School Students’ Union in 1980.

He won several awards in photography, school journalism & many other activities.

He graduated at Law School (Mansurah University) & started his career in journalism in the 80s, in one of the most famous opposition newspapers called “El Wafd” after “El Wafd Party” the oldest liberal party in Egypt. He was married to Gamila Ismail, who was a TV presenter, a political activist and who became his spokeswoman later on.

Nour's main concern was torture & corruption cases which led to his arrest & exposure to physical violence several times during his press campaigns.

Ayman Nour interviewed a number of arab world leaders like Yasser Arafat.

He wrote a number of books like “Liberalism is the solution” in 1992 compared to the famous Islamic slogan “Islam is the solution”.

He wrote as well “The Black Soldier : Zaki Badr” who was at that time the Egyptian Interior Minister.

He received his Ph.D. degree in “History of Law” from Russia in 1995. Then he ran for parliamentary elections and won to become the MP representing “El Wafd” liberal party in an electoral district in the center of Cairo called Bab el Sha’rea.

Till now he is considered the youngest member in the history of the Egyptian Parliament as he had been elected only few days after I had reached the legal age for nomination.

As a Parliament member ( 1995 – 2005 ) he exposed lots of corruption cases, proposed a large number of laws, amended & monitored many International treaties which involved Egypt , stood against random laws, supported civil rights , visited many parliaments around the world & won many awards for his honorable parliamentary performance on both national & international levels.

In 2003, he demanded a war crime trial for George W. Bush & Tony Blair for the invasion of Iraq without the UN permission.

He was re-elected for Parliament in 2000 announcing his intention for running for presidency after having 186 votes in the internal parliamentary elections (more than the third of the parliament which was in this time the main condition for being a presidential candidate) but then one year later he was dismissed from “El Wafd” party together with many of his colleagues in Parliament & began establishing their own political liberal movement called “Al Ghad” i.e. "Tomorrow" in 2003.

In 2002 he wrote a political & economical platform for Egypt’s problems in a book called (Modern Egypt in 2020) which later on became the basis for “Al Ghad party” policy.

In 2003 he launched with his fellows a large political campaign to attract Egyptian youth & society elite to political life based on the old Egyptian liberal values of “Al Ghad movement “such as “tolerance” , “human rights”, “third way free market”, while respecting Egyptian & islamic traditions.

In 2004 after a lot of pressure on the government (by thousands of founders, demonstrations & well written platforms handed to the Court ) the Egyptian government finally gave the legal license for the foundation of “Al Ghad” party (announcing in the government-controlled public media that it was an underhanded deal).

The Party then called for presidential elections instead of the old fashioned presidential referendum.

Because of his calls for constitutional reforms as regards the presidential elections, he was targeted by the Egyptian regime when 3 months later he was accused of falsifying official documents related to “Al Ghad” party.

His parliamentary immunity was terminated in a 30 minutes session & he was brutally dragged to jail while coming out of the Parliament building.

Days later President Mubarak announced constitutional reforms that will allow other candidates to run in the 2005 elections against him. So he submitted his nomination papers from inside the prison & the government released him to run for the Presidential elections.

In only 28 days, he carried out his election propaganda campaign where he visited almost all districts of Egypt holding conferences in each one. He was subjected to a heavy smear campaign by the government-controlled media & newspapers accusing him of being an American ally.

Finally he came second in the elections by officially taking 540000 votes (8%) compared to Mubarak who has been in power since 1981, who took 6 000 000 votes.

After the presidential elections he was put once again in jail in a trial described by many observers as an unfair trial under the control of a famous judge – the one who sent Dr.Saad el Din Ibrahim to prison few years before.

He was sentenced for 5 years in prison for “knowing about the falsified papers” & months later one of the imprisoned partners in this case was found hanged in his cell (was said to have committed suicide ) a day after his announcement that he had been intimidated by the State Security to force him to lie during his confession.

In prison he was forbidden all his rights including the right to communicate through writing and seeing other prisoners, even the right for health care which led to a lot of health problems later on.

In February 2009 – 4 months earlier than the date for his legal release from prison the government set him free (announcing once again that it was another deal between him & the regime ).

After being set free in 2009 he launched a new campaign called “Knocking the doors” to complete the visits he had started in 2005 to Egyptian towns & cities ,, & even to millions of Egyptians living outside Egypt in Europe , US & in the Gulf region.

Now, when he is supposed to be a free man, he is prevented from earning his living by resuming my job as a lawyer, or dealing with his bank accounts, or selling his property and finally he has been banned from traveling abroad.

Ayman Nour and Gamila Ismail undone

Ayman Nour and Gamila Ismail undone

CAIRO: Egypt's best known political couple — opposition leader Ayman Nour and his activist wife Gamil Ismail — seem to be falling apart after 20 years of marriage, creating a buzz in the country's media and political circles.

Nour, who challenged Egypt's longtime president in 2005 elections, was imprisoned soon after. His wife and political partner Ismail, confirmed in an interview published Thursday that she had separated from Nour as a step toward divorce.

"The reasons for the separation have been always there but took different shapes," she told Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper. She said the official divorce "has not happened yet" but she said the decision to separate was "final." She refused to discuss the reasons.

Word of the separation comes less than two months after Nour was released from prison, several months short of his five-year sentence. He was convicted on charges of forgery, which he had said were trumped up to remove him from politics after his challenge to President Hosni Mubarak.

Ismail had stood by her husband throughout his trial and imprisonment and rallied local and international support for his release with demonstrations and media appearances. She met with former US President George W. Bush asking him to intervene to the Egyptian authorities.

She was also seen as his political right hand. Ismail had a prominent role in Nour's liberal Ghad Party and waged a leadership battle with a pro-government faction of the party. The divisions turned violent when the rival faction clashed with Ismail's supporters at the party headquarters, which was burned.

Nour, who is in his mid-40s, is now trying to rebuild Ghad, though he is banned from running for office because of his conviction. Some have speculated Ismail would run in his place in the 2011 presidential elections.

When rumors of divorce first emerged earlier this week, Nour vehemently denied it. He told Egypt's Mehwar TV on Tuesday that Ismail was "exhausted" and "needs time off." Neither could she be reached for comment. The couple have two sons.

When asked if separation will affect Nour's political future, Ismail told the newspaper, "This is not true and I don't want to think about it that way because it puts me under heavy pressure." –AP

"I Won't Wait for the Regime to Give Me Its Blessings!"

Interview with Ayman Nour : "I Won't Wait for the Regime to Give Me Its Blessings!"


Ayman Nour, the chairman of Egypt's liberal El-Ghad party, talked to Arian Fariborz and Mahmoud Tawfik about his party's perspectives for the future and his plan to run for office again in the next presidential elections

Ayman Nour was released from prison in February 2009 after three years – for health reasons, was the official explanation on the part of the judiciary

Ayman Nour is one of the most prominent politicians in Egypt's liberal opposition. Many in the Arab world and the West see Nour, 44, as a liberal standard-bearer and a democratic alternative to Mubarak's authoritarian National Democratic Party and the Islamist opposition in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood.

2005 saw his arrest in the wake of the presidential election, on the pretext of electoral manipulation after his liberal El-Ghad party had gained 13 percent of votes.

According to political observers, Nour's sudden release last February was largely down to pressure from the Obama administration. Washington had categorised his arrest as an abuse of justice.

Although the state excluded Ayman Nour from political activities for five years after his release, he had announced he would be standing again in the next presidential elections in 2011.

* * *

According to many journalists and political observers, your release was a consequence of US pressure on the Egyptian government. Do you share this view?

Ayman Nour: The American pressure was certainly a factor, but I simply don't know enough details to either confirm or reject that interpretation. But I'm sure, of course, that many countries appealed on my behalf.

I'm particularly pleased on this point that the German parliament was one of the first to intercede on my behalf, by protesting against my arrest with a declaration to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

So how do you explain your release at this particular time?

Nour: That's just what I'm wondering! To be quite honest I don't even know myself why I was released from prison now of all times. I can only assume that the regime may have been trying to polish up its image – albeit rather late, as I only had four months left to serve of my regular prison sentence...

A phoenix rising from the ashes? Ayman Nour viewing the burnt-out El-Ghad party headquarters in Cairo after his release

What is the situation for Egypt's liberal opposition at the moment? Particularly after its defeat in the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2005 and the decline of the extra-parliamentary opposition?

Nour: The first thing you have to realise is that the liberal opposition wasn't suppressed simply because it was liberal, but to prevent it from offering a "third way" in Egypt – as an alternative to the choice between the authoritarian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood.

I believe we can pick up this idea again now that I've been released. But to do so, we have to be prepared to enter into a hard and long battle.

What alternatives do you want to offer the Egyptians as a "third way"?

Nour: Our main goal is a constitutional state. We want to offer simple, clear and pragmatic solutions and we are prepared to put these into practice immediately – if we get the chance. If the current regime were ready to give up its power at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, we'd be capable of filling the vacuum by five past eight at the latest, and taking over the business of the state in an orderly way.

We have a very clear, detailed political agenda – the longest manifesto an Egyptian party has ever had at over 1200 pages, with solutions suitable for everyday practice that don't scare people off. One thing you have to know is that the Egyptians tend to be rather suspicious of change.

Nour had announced from his prison cell that he would run for office in the next presidential election. His wife and fellow political activist Gamila Ismail passed on his statements beyond the prison walls

Apart from that, we have a public profile as a "young people's party" for 20 to 30-year-olds. I myself may be 44, much older than that, but that still makes me only half the age of the old guard of over-80-year-olds.

Egyptian opposition parties – and the Muslim Brotherhood is no exception here – are often accused of restricting their demands to political reforms, whereas they have no clear ideas on the economy. Does the same apply to the El-Ghad party?

Nour: We have our very own ideas of a "third way" as Gerhard Schröder, Tony Blair and many others took with their social liberal reform agenda. But that mustn't keep us from our most important objective. Above all we want to fight corruption – and that can't be done via economic approaches, but only by means of political reforms, through checks and balances and by strengthening the judiciary.

What political role can you take on at all for your party in the coming years? After all, you are subject to certain state conditions that make it impossible to exercise political office freely, particularly forbidding you from running for the coming presidential elections.

Nour: Never mind the conditions – we have means of getting around them. And I'd like to say very clearly to all those who interceded for my release: what you should do now is intercede to defend my rights! My arrest was not about me personally, after all, but about curtailing my rights.

Solidarity with Ayman Nour: hundreds of supporters demonstrated for the 44-year-old politician's release at the start of the court case against him

I am free again now as an individual but at the same time I can't exercise my rights freely, and the impression is that the state is still following a repressive logic by politically immobilising certain individuals – a negative picture that does huge damage to Egypt's image. I for one do not allow myself to be swayed by the feeling that I'm banned from doing anything, and I will run for office in the coming presidential election. I will simply ignore this type of conditions, as I don't source my legitimacy from the state anyway. I won't wait for the regime to give me its blessings!

How does the future look for your party? There was allegedly a split after your arrest, meaning El-Ghad almost disappeared into obscurity after having been one of the most important parties of the new opposition.

Nour: The party did not split in the actual sense. What happened was that a number of members were expelled for giving in to pressure to support Mubarak in the presidential elections.

The state had tried to use them as a Trojan horse to undermine El-Ghad from within. Two weeks before my release, a judgement was passed in our favour, ruling that the party is allowed to reconstitute itself. It's true that the party almost collapsed during my time in prison, but the reason wasn't a genuine division but this state intervention.

There are some critics, however, who say the El-Ghad party revolves solely around yourself…

Nour: That's not the case at all. I am an important part of the party, that's true, as parties in Egypt are essentially not strong as quasi "impersonal organisations". One of the great faults in Egypt's party politics is just that, that the focus on certain individuals plays such an important role here.

But perhaps that's neither unusual nor a bad thing – there's plenty of evidence that that's the case in many countries all around the globe. The best counter-evidence in any case is the fact that I was in prison for four years but the party still exists and has even renewed itself. There are many new young people in the party leadership now.

But as the party's founder I naturally play a role, as it was me who put the manifesto together, provided ideas and gave them a political form. But that's the way it is in Egypt – people can identify more with individuals than with posters and pamphlets.

Interview: Arian Fariborz and Mahmoud Tawfik

© Qantara.de 2009

BBC News - Profile: Ayman Nour

Profile: Ayman Nour

Before his imprisonment, Ayman Nour was a relative newcomer to Egypt's stagnant political scene.

Ayman Nour's Ghad party was founded in October 2004

Mr Nour, a softly-spoken, eloquent former lawyer, formed his political party in October 2004 with a view to contesting presidential elections the following year.

Three months later, prosecutors in Cairo charged him with forging signatures to register Ghad, the party whose name means "tomorrow" in Arabic.

He developed a vocal band of supporters at home and a profile abroad.

And his liberal credentials brought him into direct competition with the youthful wing of the governing party, headed by President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal.

They also brought him to the attention of the US, Egypt's biggest ally in the West, which has urged Cairo to reform the political system that has kept President Mubarak in power for more than two decades.

Analysts said the speed with which Mr Nour was stripped of parliamentary immunity and brought to trial suggested the government did not want to under-estimate the political threat he posed.

The government rejected all allegations that the trial was politically motivated.

Jail term

Washington voiced disquiet at Mr Nour's treatment and Cairo delayed his trial, enabling him to take part in the 2005 elections.

The presidential poll saw Mr Nour come a distant second to the incumbent, polling 8% of the vote to Mr Mubarak's 89% - a result Nour alleged was rigged.

In November 2005, Mr Nour also lost his parliamentary seat to a ruling party candidate - another result that he claimed was rigged.

His trial went ahead a month later, delivering a guilty verdict and handing him a five-year jail term.

A co-defendant at the trial complained he had been forced to make a false confession.

Political family

Mr Nour, a diabetic dependent on insulin, spent the week before the verdict in hospital as a result of a hunger strike he had started in protest at his detention.

Ayman Nour's wife has campaigned for his release

During an earlier spell in prison, he wrote to US magazine Newsweek, saying the government was suspicious of his reformist inclinations and wanted to discredit him by labelling him as an agent of the US.

"The solidarity shown to me by my supporters, together with sympathy from the international community, have triggered in [the] authorities a strange stubbornness," he wrote.

The 44-year-old comes from a family with a long history of involvement in public life.

Throughout his trial, his wife, Gameela Ismail, led daily protests against the Mubarak administration.

While in prison last year, he is known to have written to Barack Obama as he campaigned for the US presidency. It is understood he urged Mr Obama to help Arab reformers push for democracy in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, during a speech in Egypt in May 2008, President George W Bush pointedly remarked that "too often in the Middle East, politics consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail".

Mr Nour's release was unexpected but comes at a time of expectation that the Obama administration could bring a change in diplomatic relations in the region.

Egypt's Ayman Nour takes HR chief to court

Ayman Nour, opposition leader of Ghad Party sues NCHR for neglecting his plight

CAIRO (Marwa Awad)

After four years of filing complaints of prison torture, jailed opposition leader
Ayman Nour has filed suit against Boutros Boutros Ghali demanding one
million pounds ($181,750) and accusing the former chairman of the National
Council for Human Rights of failing to perform his duties.

"Nour's condition worsens daily behind the walls of Egypt's Tora prison,"
activist Jameela Ismail, Ayman Nour's wife, told AlArabiya.net.

Real motives behind arrest Democracy activists believe Ayman Nour was jailed for running up against Mubarak in 2005 Nour was sentenced during the 2005 Egyptian presidential elections to five years in prison on charges of forging many signatures that his opposition Ghad party needed to get legal recognition, charges vehemently denied by Nour. Human rights organizations and democracy advocates however believe the real causes of arrest were Nour's decision to run against President Hosni Mubarak in the September 2005 elections, in which Nour secured 13 percent of the votes, according to independent surveys. “Ayman Nur’s trial, like the violence against voters in the parliamentary elections, is a terrible advertisement for President Mubarak’s supposed reform agenda, and for Egypt’s judiciary,” Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division said in a 2005 HRW report. Since his arrest, Nour has repeatedly filed complaints to the council detailing the physical and emotional abuse he says he faces daily at the hands of Tora prison guards. The council responded by setting up a committee of inquiry into Nour's situation. "What we have seen from the council was one single visit in 2005 followed by promises to look into Ayman's case. Four days after Ayman was beaten up by Egyptian police officers as he was being transferred to the Giza court for a hearing," Ismail recalled.

Prison torture Jameela Ismail, permitted to visit her husband once every two weeks, says Nour suffers daily Ismail, who is allowed to visit her husband once every two weeks, believes the beating came in defiance of the committee's visit. "The police and guards beat him in a clear sign to the committee that what NCHR does means nothing and will achieve nothing," she said. HRW has condemned Egypt's record of human rights abuses in its 2007 report on the country's human rights violations. “Egypt has for too long committed serious and systematic abuses at home while consistently undermining UN mechanisms to defend rights,” Joe Stork was quoted in the report.

Ghali's response " I have not received any official papers about a lawsuit and until then, these claims are just rumors. " Boutros Boutros Ghali, NCHR chief NCHR chief Boutros Boutros Ghali said he had no knowledge of any lawsuit filed against him. "I have not received any official papers about a lawsuit and until then, these claims are just rumors," he told AlArabiya.net. He claimed that NCHR has sufficiently addressed Nour's complaints, adding that the Egyptian Judiciary has the final say on Nour's plight.

Egypt News : Egypt court keeps jailed Nur cut off from outside contacts

Wednesday, 21 May 2008

An Egyptian judicial source reported Tuesday that Egyptian opposition figure Ayman Nur who has been in jail for the past two years will no longer be entitled to publish articles in the press

The ruling was issued in Egypt's higher administrative court, rejecting an appeal from Nur against a ruling handed down in January that also bans him from receiving or sending letters, said Egypt’s source.
"This decision shows a determination to deny him every right as a prisoner," said Nur's wife, Gamila Ismail.
Nur, who came a distant second to Hosni Mubarak in presidential polls in September 2005, was later the same year sentenced to five years behind bars on charges of forging official documents to set up a political party.
His family and human rights groups say Nur's health has sharply deteriorated in prison, but an appeal for his early release on health grounds was turned down in March.
Egypt has rejected as interference US-led criticism of its human rights record and treatment of Nur.
US President George W. Bush wound up a Middle East tour in Egypt on Sunday urging friends and foes in the Middle East, where few leaders are elected, to stop repressing their peoples.
"Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail," he said.

EGYPT NEWS

Agence France Presse : Ayman Nur’s Bid for Freedom Denied by Court

CAIRO, 1 June 2007 — An Egyptian court rejected yesterday a bid by opposition leader Ayman Nur to be released from prison on medical grounds, despite his claims that his health has worsened since he was jailed.

Judge Adel Abdul Salam Gomaa announced his decision without giving any explanation.

On May 22, an administrative court postponed a ruling on Nur, an insulin-dependant diabetic who has been held for more than a year, pending a medical examination.

Nur was jailed in December 2005, three months after coming a distant second in the country’s first ever multi-candidate presidential election, in which he mounted a daring campaign against veteran President Hosni Mubarak.

He is serving a five-year sentence for forging affidavits needed to set up his Ghad party.

Nur’s lawyer Amir Salem told AFP he was pursuing a dual track in his appeal. One was before the same court that convicted his client, the court of assizes, and another before the administrative court, which examines procedure, technicalities and constitutionality leading to convictions.

Salem said before the ruling that if it were positive, Nur “will get out in order to be treated, but he could be put back in jail at any time.” In the May 22 hearing, the judge announced that a committee of medical experts appointed by the Ministry of Justice would carry out further tests on Nur before giving its decision on June 12.

In February, a committee of government-appointed experts, made up of members of the medical profession and the prison authority, concluded he was fit enough to serve out his jail sentence.

But Nur appealed and has repeatedly claimed he was not receiving proper medical care in prison.

“I’m losing my eyesight, I have cardiac problems, I have terrible headaches and my bruises and wounds don’t heal,” he said in a January interview with AFP, showing two open wounds on his legs he said he suffered when he fell a month earlier.

Nur said he had gone from being a victim of “political assassination” to being subjected to “physical destruction,” insisting the regime wanted him to die behind bars.

Nur’s wife Gamila Ismail had said earlier yesterday that she was cautiously optimistic of a favorable verdict.

“Nothing is certain, nor does it offer enormous optimism, but this time I have brought my son to court and perhaps this time we will have good news,” she told AFP.

The United States was sharply critical of Nur’s arrest and has repeatedly called for his release.

Nur formed his party in October 2004 with a view to contesting the presidential polls, but he was swiftly stripped of his parliamentary immunity and charged with forging affidavits needed to set up the party. His January 2005 arrest prompted US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cancel a trip to Egypt in protest, and US pressure eventually obtained Nur’s release on bail in March of that year, allowing him to run in the elections.

Free Ayman Nour

Egypt/Bonito: “AYMAN NOUR’S FIVE YEAR JAIL TERM FILL ME WITH GRIEF”

Rome, May 18, 2006 - “Ayman Nour’s sentence to five years imprisonment by the Court of Appeals in Cairo is bewildering.. As a friend, the fact that Ayman Nour will stay in prison for another four years fill me with grief: my thoughts go to his wife and adolescent children.

In March 2005, together with colleagues from the Liberal Group of the European Parliament, we had successfully urged the authorities to release him. Today, depriving him of his personal freedom for another four years has a sour taste of political persecution”.

BBC News - Egypt court rebuffs Nour petition

Egypt court rebuffs Nour petition

Nour is caged in court as is the practice in Egypt

An Egyptian appeals court has fined opposition figure Ayman Nour and rejected his request for a new tribunal to try him on charges of forgery.

Mr Nour's lawyers said the court had given no explanation for the 9,000 Egyptian pound ($1,500) penalty.

The defence had argued that the court colluded with the prosecution by preventing their client from speaking.

Mr Nour, who was second in last month's presidential election, is accused of forging signatures to set up his party.

"The claims upon which Ayman Nour based the reasons for his appeal have no basis in truth or law," the court said in its ruling.

Punishment

Defence lawyer Amir Salem, in an interview with AFP news agency, criticised the court's conduct.

"This fine amounts to a punishment, and should have only been imposed if the defence's request had been made with a view to slowing or precluding progress in the trial, which was not the case here," he said.

Forty-year-old Mr Nour, who heads the Ghad (Tomorrow) party, denies the charges against him and says he is the victim of a plot to block his rise on the political scene.

He was arrested in January and was detained for six weeks without charge until his release on bail. The detention raised concerns in Washington.

A co-defendant in the trial, Ayman Ismail, had admitted forging documents for Mr Nour - but he has since withdrawn his testimony, saying the confession was forced out of him with threats against his family.

If Mr Nour is convicted he could face up to 15 years in prison.

The Washington Post : Egypt Holds Candidate Despite Vow Of Reform

Egypt Holds Candidate Despite Vow Of Reform

By Daniel Williams

Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 12, 2005; Page A01

CAIRO, March 11 -- Two weeks after President Hosni Mubarak announced that Egypt would hold multi-candidate presidential elections, the first politician to say he would run was sitting in jail.

Inmate No. 1387 at Tora jail is Ayman Nour, a lawyer and member of parliament. His normal residence is a penthouse apartment decorated with bronze French Empire-style knickknacks, gigantic gilt mirrors and a plaster image of Marilyn Monroe with her skirt blowing upward.

Ayman Nour, right, a candidate for president of Egypt, is surrounded by police at a court appearance in late January. (Nasser Nouri -- AP)

Nour, whose small Tomorrow Party was legalized in October and holds six seats in Egypt's 454-member parliament, is only one of thousands of Egyptian political figures jailed during decades of authoritarian rule. Yet since his arrest Jan. 29 on suspicion of forging official documents, his fate has become intertwined with the destiny of political change in Egypt.

State Department and European Union officials, all pressing for democratic reform, have complained about his detention. Pro-government reformists who dispute Nour on the details and pace of change nonetheless express concern that his internment will discredit their own efforts. Government officials reject complaints that Nour is being persecuted and insist that his case is a domestic legal question and not the business of outsiders. And the people of Cairo, legendarily indifferent to politics, are debating the justice of his case.

The extent of Nour's popularity is difficult to gauge -- there have been no polls on prospective presidential candidates. Mustafa Kamel Sayed, a political science professor at Cairo University, said recently that Nour might be able to win 20 or even 30 percent of the vote in a race against Mubarak.

Regardless, his arrest exposes the uncertainty of a government that feels itself under siege, observers say. The Bush administration has singled out Egypt as overripe for reform. Political demonstrators are becoming increasingly loud and anti-Mubarak, even though they are still far outnumbered by phalanxes of police officers. The government appears reluctant to risk letting an independent politician run free.

"Fear makes for political mistakes. Everything is up in the air, and you will find cases like Nour's," said Hala Mustafa, editor in chief of the al-Ahram Democracy Review, part of a government-backed reform research group. She declined to comment on the merits of Nour's case.

Aida Seif Dawla, a longtime left-wing activist and human rights campaigner, said it was "an extremely weak moment for the government. It's not just Nour. Far from it. They pick up people handing out leaflets at the book fair. The government wants to give the appearance of making a new start, but it's not going to take any risks."

At first blush, Nour seems an unlikely political martyr. He campaigned for competitive presidential elections, but he is far from a revolutionary. In an interview two days before his arrest, he predicted that whatever the conditions, this year's election would simply extend Mubarak's 24-year reign for another six years. In October, he told a reporter, "We love and appreciate President Mubarak, but we love this nation as well and would like to develop it like other countries."

Said Gamila Ismail, Nour's wife and political aide: "Ayman was the most surprised of all about his arrest. He never gave it a second thought."

Nour had taken positions recently, however, that were daring by the standards of Egyptian political discourse. On the eve of a meeting between Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party and opposition groups, he sent a letter demanding that Mubarak attend the conference; otherwise, Nour said he would not. This assertion of equality irritated the president, party insiders said. Nour was jailed three days before the conference opened.

Nour's associates say he also had told them that he thought Mubarak's wife, Suzanne, was pressing her husband to arrange for their son Gamal to succeed him.

That kind of talk is risky, despite an easing of repression that has brought life to a political scene still restricted by quarter-century-old emergency laws. Security agents telephone foreign correspondents' Egyptian assistants to ask whom they are talking to and about what. This week, when the Tomorrow Party issued the first edition of its newspaper -- in which Nour announced his candidacy -- police held up distribution for a day to review the articles.

"Nour's problem is that he has been acting in excess of his real political influence," said Ali Abdel Fattah, an official of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, an Islamic-based organization once associated with violence in Egypt, is banned from politics but is regarded as the country's biggest opposition force.

On the morning of Jan. 29, Nour received notification that his immunity from prosecution as a member of parliament was being lifted. He rushed to the People's Assembly building and was told that police were investigating forgeries among documents he submitted last year to the government in his bid to have his party legalized. When legislators -- 85 percent of whom belong to Mubarak's party -- voted to expose Nour to prosecution, he responded heatedly: "I put myself in the hands of God and the Egyptian people. All know I am innocent." He turned to the head of parliament and labeled him "unjust." The legislature later struck the words from the record.

A few minutes after his arrest, police searched his apartment, while his wife and two children were present. The 15 agents went through computer disks, inspected his medicine cabinet and even took samples of pipe tobacco, Ismail said

Prosecutors and a court have until Tuesday to decide whether to press charges or release him. Late Thursday, prosecutors announced the release of one of Nour's associates, Ayman Barakat, who also was detained on forgery charges.

In effect, the stage is set for a test of Egypt's reform efforts and its relations with the United States, which provides the country $2 billion in annual aid. On Jan. 31, State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said, "The arrest, in our minds, raises questions about the outlook for democratic process in Egypt." Two weeks later, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit about the Bush administration's "strong concerns."

Although Egyptian officials are reluctant to publicly comment on the case, they insist that the allegations are valid. "The issue of Ayman Nour is an issue related to criminal accusations," Aboul Gheit said in an interview. "There are no political considerations. It remains with the attorney general to decide, without interference of outside powers."

The case hinges on the activities of a Tomorrow Party member who told police he forged numerous documents with signatures of people purporting to back the party's legalization bid -- all at Nour's request. Only 50 such papers are needed, but Nour provided more than 2,000. Prosecutors contend that more than 1,000 were forgeries.

Nour's attorney, Amir Salem, a human rights activist who has been jailed nine times, said Nour forged no documents and the informer was a plant. "I've never seen a frame-up prepared like this," he said.

Nour, 40, has been involved in politics since high school. His father was a pioneer member of the Wafd Party, a group that dates from the 1920s. "I remember seeing him 21 years ago get out of his late-model Mercedes and go right into student meetings to play politics," Mazen Mustafa, a Tomorrow Party member, said of the younger Nour. "He was different from others. He liked to let others speak."

Fifteen years ago, Nour published a book presenting liberalism as an alternative to Islamic politics. In 1994, he won a seat in parliament representing Cairo's Bab ash-Shariya district, a teeming neighborhood of butchers and farm supply shops. He broke with Wafd five years ago because he came to believe the party was too tame, ran again in Bab ash-Shariya and won. "He is ambitious, that is for sure," said Wael Nawara, another Tomorrow member.

In parliament, Nour carried out investigations of everything from bread prices to torture, endearing himself to his impoverished constituency, supporters say. He operated a charity office and community center in Bab ash-Shariya that provided medical advice, a hall for free weddings and school lessons for children.

On Wednesday, at a teahouse in Bab ash-Shariya, a laborer said Nour was guilty only of "trying to be president and be democratic. . . . He cares about this area. He paved sidewalks and planted trees."

A critic arrived and began to sing the praises of Mubarak: "He should stay in office forever. Ayman Nour must have done something wrong or he wouldn't be in jail."

"This is democracy?" countered the laborer. "Anyone who speaks up can end up in the same trouble."

That night, Nour's supporters held a candlelight vigil to demand his release. About 50 demonstrators and at least three times as many police officers showed up.

Jailed Nour tests Egypt's democracy

By Malcolm Brabant BBC News, Cairo

Ayman Nour has been held in an Egyptian jail since January

Supporters of Egypt's newest political party are calling on the government to free their leader, Ayman Nour, who is currently being detained on what they claim are trumped up charges.

Party of Tomorrow leader Mr Nour is regarded as a potential presidential candidate.

But his continued imprisonment is damaging his chances of running against President Hosni Mubarak later in 2005.

Mr Nour has been held in custody since the end of January.

He was arrested on allegations that he forged documents used to secure legal status for his Party of Tomorrow which was formed last autumn.

His wife Gamila Ismail believes the Egyptian authorities are trying to frame him.

Accusing him of forging petitions, this is just crazy, it is nonsense. He didn't have any reason to do this Gamila Ismail, Nour's wife

"If these allegations stick, this is going to end his political career," she says.

Ms Ismail says that when security officers checked their penthouse in the expensive district of Zamalek, they were particularly interested in his tobacco boxes and medication.

"The lawyers explained to me later on that they were trying to find something illegal such as drugs."

International concern

The United States, which is trying to force the Arab world to become more democratic, has expressed deep concern about Mr Nour's continued detention.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told her Egyptian counterpart that she hopes "the issue is resolved soon".

Egyptian officials resent what they perceive as American interference in what they insist is a legal, not political matter.

Nour supporters' main demand is greater democracy

Ibrahim Rafeir, a member of parliament with the ruling National Democratic Party says: "The case of Ayman Nour is in the hands of the Egyptian judicial system and the judicial system is just.

"Each and every one of us resists any foreign interference."

Last October the Nours and their supporters were celebrating the inauguration of their liberal, secular party.

Stagnation

The Party of Tomorrow's most important demand is for greater democracy.

Ayman Nour told me in October: "We love and appreciate President Mubarak, but we love this nation as well and would like it to develop like other countries."

Ayman Nour is really a very clever political animal. He might get 20% or 30% of the vote Mustafa Kamel al-Sayed Political scientist How democratic is the Middle East?

Following a wave of angry demonstrations by pro-democracy campaigners defying a ban on street protests, as well as increasing pressure from the US, Mr Mubarak has agreed to allow challengers to contest the presidential election.

But 25 years of political stagnation have left the Egyptian opposition struggling to find a candidate of sufficient stature and charisma to stand against Mr Mubarak.

Some analysts believe that Ayman Nour, a former journalist, lawyer and publisher, possesses the necessary profile to make substantial inroads against the president.

Mustafa Kamel al-Sayed, a Professor of Political Science at Cairo University, says: "Ayman Nour is really a very clever political animal.

"He might get 20% or 30% of the vote. But it is this perception that he might be capable of getting a large number of votes that would get the government to try to deprive him of this opportunity of running as a presidential candidate."

Discredited

Rumours surface daily in Cairo that Mr Nour is going to be released soon.

Could this signal the end of Egypt's 25 years of political stagnation?

And that he is being visited in jail by senior officials who keep demanding to know if he is going to declare his intention to run.

Ms Ibrahim fears that even if her husband is freed, he will be charged so that a trial hangs over his head and discredits him at election time.

"Accusing him of forging petitions, this is just crazy, it is nonsense. He didn't have any reason to do this," she says.

The case of Ayman Nour is being seen by many analysts as a true test of President Mubarak's commitment to greater democracy.

The challenge for Egypt is to protect its stability, while easing what Mr Mubarak's critics regard as some of the country's more authoritarian tendencies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4328353.stm