Cairo - Opposition politician Ayman Nour, speaking to
reporters Thursday after his release from prison the previous
evening, said he had no plans to reassume leadership of the party he
founded or to run for office again.
A public prosecutor ordered Nour's release on Wednesday on account
of the politician's ailing health. A Cairo court had sentenced Nour,
the founder of the Ghad (Tomorrow) party, to four years in prison on
forgery charges shortly after he ran against Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak in the 2005 presidential elections.
'Running for election is a decision to be taken by the party's
leadership and its general assembly,' Nour told reporters at a press
conference at the Ghad party's headquarters in downtown Cairo on
Thursday.
'The first task must be to rebuild the party,' he said. 'I will be
responsible for helping to organize the internal workings of the
party and overseeing the membership committee - nothing more.'
Nour, who is banned from political action or from running for
office for six years after his release, by judicial order, stressed
that Ihab al-Khouli would continue as the head of the Ghad party.
'Regarding banning me from practicing politics, we have legal
solutions and steps that will cancel the decree that stops me from
practicing politics, but I cannot reveal these steps at the moment,'
Nour said.
International governments, notably the United States, and Egyptian
and international human-rights organizations had frequently called on
the Egyptian government to release Nour over the past three years.
'I do not think my release was the result of foreign pressure,'
Nour said Thursday.
The ailing politician, whose party has been riven by leadership
disputes that have sometimes turned violent since his imprisonment,
also called for all Egyptian political parties to come together for a
'national reconciliation' conference on March 9.
March 9 will be the 90th anniversary of an Egyptian revolt against
British rule occasioned by the arrest of Egyptian independence leader
Saad Zaghloul. After weeks of rioting that left hundreds dead, the
British released Zaghloul.
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