A pardon for Nour?

I forgot to post this last week, but readers may be interested in reading a letter by Ayman Nour's family to mark the one-year anniversary of the 2005 presidential elections, in which he came a distant second from Hosni Mubarak and most probably caused him to be sentenced to jail on 25 December of the same year. In the letter, fully reproduced below, President Mubarak is appealed to grant Nour a pardon. Previously Nour had refused to petition Mubarak for an appeal, and I am still not sure whether the administrative legwork to file for a pardon has been done or whether this a more informal, moral appeal. It's worth noting that US President Bush recently called for Nour's release, as have opposition MPs in Egypt. Letter from Ayman Nour on the anniversary of the 2005 presidential elections.

This week marks the anniversary of the first presidential elections in Egypt's history which took place on September 7, 2005. This week also Dr. Ayman Nour, leader of Al-Ghad party and the second candidate according to the results of the presidential elections, almost completes one year in prison for allegedly having forged Al-Ghad party powers-of-attorney. We receive both events with contradicting feelings due to the severe deterioration in Nour's health after having suffered coronary artery, diabetes and high blood pressure complications. Thus, continuing to enforce the five-year sentence would represent a death sentence to Nour, a matter organized by Article 36 of the law governing prisons which deals with release for medical reasons. This issue is also governed by Article 149 of the Egyptian Constitution which entitles the President exclusive authority to grant pardon or reduce the sentence. Dear Sir, Today there are people celebrating the one year anniversary of the election considering it a sign of democratic progress. There are also those who believe it useful for the President to use the exclusive authority vested in him by the Constitution by suspending the penalty or considering the year Nour spent in prison sufficient due to the extremely hard conditions, the unjust and harsh treatment he was subjected to. It has become clear that those who wish to show their ability in serving the regime are focusing on harassing Nour through depriving him of his basic human right guaranteed by the Constitution and the Prisons Law. It is enough to point out the decision to prevent him from writing in a clear violation of the Constitution, the law and prison regulations. He was also prevented from receiving treatment and having an urgent artery operation at his own expense. Moreover, he is under 24-hour surveillance in prison, prevent from movement and correspondence in violation of the law and prison regulations. He is also prevented from receiving the special food for his health condition from outside the prison which led him to go on hunger strike more than once in objection. The Administrative Judiciary Court is also considering a number of relevant lawsuits, the decision related to the first of which is expected on 26 September. We appeal to you for immediate intervention to save Ayman Nour's life and for a wise call for a stance that takes all the conditions of the case, which we do not wish to go into now and which are known to everyone, into consideration. We are not asking to give Nour an equal treatment as singers, artists and others. We only call for observing the circumstances, harms and health risks and respond to a request submitted to the President months ago by 110 current parliament representatives to release Nour through a Presidential Decree in accordance with the Constitution. The President's response at this time in particular to the request of about one-third of the parliament representing the nation has major implications. It is worth calling for and moving to achieve to save the life of an Egyptian citizen who, on 7 September 2005, obtained over half a million votes. Dear Sir, We address this message to you due to our confidence in your sincere patriotism and your ability to make an effort in line with the dedication we know you enjoy to your convictions and the ideas you adopt that transcend political and party differences. We hope the God grants success to you efforts on our behalf. Ayman Nour's small and larger families

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Hamzawy: Democracy lost

That Amr Hamzawy -- he's so hot right now (you have watched Zoolander, haven't you?):

This widening ideological divide between ruling elites and oppositions will make it more difficult to adopt political reform measures, which require at least some consensus and flexibility on both sides. More troubling is that the positions of putatively democratic Arab opposition movements on the war in Lebanon have exposed their totalitarian and populist tendencies. There is a great difference between adopting a rational discourse that rightly condemns the Israeli military for its crimes against civilians and criticizes unconditional American acceptance of the war, and cheering the death of Israeli civilians as a step toward the destruction of the "Zionist entity." This goes beyond the tendency of Islamist and pan-Arab opposition movements to opportunistically capitalize on popular feelings to rally support. It shows that these movements lack a key characteristic of reformist political forces: a willingness to combat ideologies of hatred and extremism rather than using them for political advantage. Furthermore, although they call for democratic reform in Arab countries, Islamist and pan-Arab movements have failed to acknowledge the fundamentally non-democratic nature of the actions of Lebanon's Hizbullah. By unilaterally making a decision of war and peace on July 12, Hizbullah confiscated the right of Lebanon's government, of which it is part, to determine the country's fate. Israel's response , by targeting infrastructure and the civilian population, was surely extreme, legitimizing resistance; however, Hizbullah acted like a state within a state, taking advantage of the weakness of Lebanon's formal institutions and transgressing the principle of consensual decision-making. The regional shadows of the war in Lebanon will persist for many years. They may well be a long and painful reminder that the hope for any near-term democratic transformation of the Arab world was perhaps the greatest loser in a war that produced tremendous damage on all sides.

Harsh words indeed. While I agree with him that Hizbullah acted irresponsibly on 12 July, it's quite a stretch to say that it took a decision of war and peace. It was Israel that took the decision to escalate the conflict into a full-scale war. As for the opposition being opportunistic in capitalizing on the Hizbullah-Lebanon war for local advantage, I don't really see that as a problem (they're politicians, after all) as much as some of the delusions about this war. But there is a real concern in that the opposition does not realize that cheering for Hizbullah is a dead-end street: there is no real support in Egypt (and I suspect in all other Arab countries) for going to war against Israel. The need for a rational discourse about the region is indeed great, and it would have been nice to see less grandstanding from certain parts of the Nasserist left (which does indeed have totalitarian impulses). But it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg argument: can you have a quality democratic debate in the absence of democracy and when the only avenue open to dissidents is populism? Rational debate lost out on all sides here: in both the Arab world and in Israel (actually, particularly in Israel), jingoism triumphed.

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Ayman Nour to undergo surgery

Press reports today say imprisoned Ghad party leader Ayman Nour has been hospitalized and will undergo heart surgery within a few days.

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Baheyya on power politics

As with every single posting Baheyya writes, this is a must read...

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New liberal party launched

Dr. Osama al-Ghazali Harb, political pundit and editor of Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya, is to hold a press conference on the launching of his new political party in Egypt on Sunday, 16 July, 11am at the Shepherd Hotel in downtown Cairo, according to a press release I received. Harb, a former member of the NDP’s Policies’ Secretariat, resigned from the party shortly after he voted against Mubarak’s proposed constitutional amendment at the Shura Council February last year, and expressed his interest in forming a new political party with a liberal agenda. I’m attaching the press release.

Press Release The Democratic Front Party (Under establishment) The founders of the Democratic Front Party (under establishment) will be holding a press conference on Sunday, 16 July 2006, at 11:00 am in Shepard Hotel, Nefertiti Hall. At this conference speakers will introduce the principal founders of the party, present its program and invite all Egyptian citizens to participate in the establishment of the party. Speakers include representatives of the founding party members Dr. Yehia Al-Gamal, the prominent lawyer and professor of constitutional law at Cairo University, and Dr. Osama Al-Ghazali Harb, Editor in Chief of Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya Journal and member of Shura Council, in addition to a number of prominent public figures and new young faces who have participated in founding the party.

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Journalist sentenced to one year in prison for "insulting" Mubarak

Ibrahim 3eissa, the popular liberal editor of Al-Dostour, has been sentenced today to one year in prison, for "insulting" the president in an article he published April last year, that included a copy of a lawsuit filed by an Egyptian lawyer against President Hosni Mubarak and his family. The court sentenced also another Al-Dostour reporter, Sahar Zaki, to a year in prison, together with Sa3eed Mohamed Abdallah Suleiman the lawyer who filed the original lawsuit quoted by Al-Dostour's article. Three other reporters were released on a LE10,000 bail, pending their appeal. The article, published 5 April 2005, Issue 55, included accusations by the lawyer against Hosni Mubarak, Suzan Mubarak, and Gamal Mubarak of "waisting the country's resources" by "selling the public sector for a cheap price, ... squandering foreign aid." Suleiman demanded, in his lawsuit, that the president "returns LE500 billion to the treasury." He also accused the president of turning the "Arab Republic of Egypt into a monarchy" and "replacing the constitution with State Security rule." Mubarak has usually been a favorite target for criticism on the weekly tabloid's frontpage. There will be a press conference in the evening at Al-Dostour's office, 7pm, 29 Tanta St., 3agouza. UPDATE: CPJ has issued a statement denouncing the court verdict. EGYPT: Editor, reporter for weekly are sentenced to jail New York, June 26, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores today’s decision by an Egyptian court to sentence two journalists to a year in prison for publishing a report critical of President Hosni Mubarak, his family, and other top officials. The court in Al-Warrak, north of Giza, sentenced Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent weekly Al-Dustour, and Sahar Zaki, a reporter for the paper, to a year in prison for insulting Mubarak, the newspaper said in a statement today. The journalists, who were not present for the verdict, are free on bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds pending appeal. The case against Eissa and Zaki stems from an April 5, 2005, news item that reported efforts by an Egyptian lawyer to take Mubarak and his family to court on allegations of corruption, including the alleged misuse of foreign aid. The lawyer, Said Abdullah, was also sentenced today to a year in jail. Over all, Al-Dustour has been a persistently harsh critic of Mubarak and his government. Two years ago, Mubarak pledged to eliminate prison penalties against journalists for what they publish. The promise remains unfulfilled, and Egyptian journalists continue to be brought before criminal courts and sentenced to jail because of their criticism of government officials and other influential figures. In 2006 alone, CPJ has documented the cases of at least two other journalists sentenced to jail terms on defamation charges. “Taken together with President Mubarak’s empty promise, the continuing prosecutions of outspoken journalists demonstrate this government’s hostility toward independent journalism,� CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. “We call on Egypt to put an end to the egregious practice of prosecuting journalists for their work.� UPDATE: Human Rights Watch blasted the court ruling in a statement.

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