An English translation follows.
30 May 2006
Tura Mazraa Prison
South CairoFrom: Ayman Nour
To: Esteemed Members of the European Union Deputy Head of the European Parliament
I address this very short letter to you and to all the honorable and free people in the world, to all the representatives of the free people and those whose consciences refuse oppression, injustice, false accusations and merciless murder.
My letter is very short due to the circumstances out of my control restricting my freedom and depriving me of my human rights, the foremost of which is the right to write, express and reject the injustice and suffering I am subjected to!!
The day my freedom was taken away in January 2005, your great efforts –after God and combined with the efforts of my supporters- played a crucial role in my release. The first faces I saw –an honor to me- were the faces of a delegation of European male and female parliament representatives. Your visit to me during my imprisonment is not only reason for breaking the doors of this prison and my temporary release, it also gave me the possibility of exercising my right in running for the first presidential election. I was imprisoned to prevent me from running for the election in January 2005. With God’s grace and the enthusiasm of the reformists I was able to come in second to the president and be the only competitor to him and his son despite the rigging and all forms of injustice, defamation and changing the results. I also paid an extra price when my constituency’s election results were rigged thus causing me to lose my permanent seat in the parliament due to blatant rigging. Some of you were in Cairo and witnessed a part of the tragedy.
Today I pay a new and high price as punishment for having run for the presidential election. I am also being prevented from continuing the democratic reform path in Egypt so that the current regime can strengthen its presence by claiming there is no alternative for it other than fundamentalism and terrorism, thus forcing people inside and outside Egypt to accept its presence.
Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, I do not pay this price alone. My children, family, party, my whole generation and all the reformists in this country pay the price, too. I lost my freedom, my work as a lawyer, journalist and chairman of the first and only civil political party to be established in a quarter of a century, the duration of Mubarak’s rule. I am threatened of remaining in prison for five years and prevented from exercising my political rights for another five years to guarantee that Egypt is inherited by Mubarak’s son, as well as making me an example to anyone who thinks of breaking the power monopoly not only in Egypt but in the Arab world!!
I call upon you to exert every effort to defend my fair case not for my sake, nor for the sake of my children or my party that is being destroyed, my human rights which are violated in this prison every morning, or my life which illness, injustice and oppression are eating away at. I ask you to defend my fair case to keep hope alive for the coming generations which we do not want to lose hope. It is for these generations that I call upon you to exert every effort to defend my fair case and to visit me in prison to witness the truth which the Egyptian regime is very good at concealing and telling lies to prove the opposite. Free people of the world. I am dying alone for a principle, for my country and for freedom. Please raise my voice before my spirit departs this world.
Ayman Nour
[…] Ayman Nour has smuggeled a letter out of Prison and he has a plea for all of you . Permalink • Trackback URL […]
Damn, what did u post this for? what do you expect us to do? hah..get more fucking angry. I personally have plenty of other reasons to sodomise the existence of mubarak, sons, wife and the government other than the anger that publishing this letter may throw in me or make others feel.
I don’t post to make people angry, just to let them know… You’re right that anger won’t solve anything, and that they are few apparent solutions out there!
[…] The clampdown in Egypt has tightened this spring as President Hosni Mubarak’s chief challenger in last year’s election, Ayman Nour, has been sentenced to five years in prison. Hundreds of protesters have been beaten and arrested by security forces; Mr. Nour’s supporters blame the government for a fire last week that destroyed his headquarters; and Egypt ordered an American pro-democracy group, the International Republican Institute, to suspend work in the country. Mr. Obey, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee and a prominent voice on foreign policy, had first proposed cutting $200 million from the $1.3 billion in military aid for Egypt in 2007. Raytheon Co. and other military contractors with sales to Egypt helped block that proposal, so he turned to Chairman Hyde and focused on the $455 million pledged to Cairo in the form of economic-support funds. To win votes, the amendment called for dividing the $100 million equally among two popular causes: fighting AIDS and famine in Africa. But among the strongest opponents were prominent African-American Democrats, such as Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D., Mich.), whose Detroit-area district has a substantial Arab-American population. The underlying foreign-aid bill represents a $597 million increase over this year, but this belies a major budget-cutting exercise, since the administration requested almost $2.4 billion more than the bill would provide for the new budget year that begins Oct. 1. The administration is promised $3.4 billion to fight AIDS and tuberculosis, and the White House would get most, but not all, of the money requested for an initiative to fight malaria. The House floor action came as Republican leaders in Congress reached final agreement on a long-delayed wartime-spending bill to pay for military operations in Iraq as well as Gulf Coast hurricane-recovery efforts. The House Appropriations panel released more detail about a proposed $427.6 billion Pentagon budget for 2007. Within the $427.6 billion total, $50 billion represents a further emergency expenditure, largely for Iraq, and an ever-larger share of the funding is consumed by the escalating operations costs in the war. The remaining $377.6 billion represents the core Pentagon budget for the year, and as with foreign aid, cuts are made from the administration’s request. The $81.78 billion provided for procurement is $1.14 billion less than requested and includes a $140 million cut from the Air Force procurement of the Joint Strike Fighter and $88 million from planned purchases of the Global Hawk unmanned-aerial vehicle. […]
Please know that there are peaceful solutions out there. There is power in the stoke of a pen. Letters can be written to those Congressmen/Congresswomen who assisted in blocking Congressman Obey’s amendment to the aid’s bill to stop a portion of the amount of military aid to Egypt. (We sent Congressman Obey a thank you letter for his actions.) Letters can be written to the CEOs of the companies who lobbied U.S. Congress for military aid to Egypt protesting their lobbying and informing them of how average hardworking Egyptian citizens are suffering from the results of their lobbying. Letters can be written to the editors of the community newspapers where those companies are headquartered and where those congressmen/congresswomen reside/represent, again protesting the actions of the companies and/or congress person and how their actions contribute to the daily suffering of Egyptian citizens. Such letters need though come from mainly Egyptians. Additionally, Egyptians living inside of Egypt need to share with those outside how they are suffering so those outside of Egypt who are willing to write letters can explain what is happening inside Egypt. Exposing what the actions of others are causing works wonders. This is how we in the U.S. stay free by the stroke of a pen and by exposing immoral actions/inactions. Please realize that average hardworking American citizens are busy struggling with their daily lives and are unaware of what is happening in the Middle East except for the wars. I have taken two young women (one in their mid-50s and one in their mid-40s) and are sharing what I am learning in this journey to try and free Ayman Nour. They are open minded and upset over what they are learning. Unfortunately, I am only one person and elderly at that but I believe that the efforts are worth it (I spend my free time collecting everything I can on what is happening in Egypt which goes into a newsletter) and that Egypt’s situation can and will turn around from the efforts of many, many folks in Egypt as well as outside of Egypt. Let’s call it the World Citizen’s Initiative. Just do not give up, keep faith no matter how badly circumstances may appear, and know that there are folks outside of Egypt cheering on (as well as working hard) those of you in Egypt who so want freedom and democracy.
[…] As I’m blogging now, 3alaa is speaking on MBC, about the bloggers community in Egypt, human rights abuses, prospects for activism in Egypt, and his encounter with the Muslim Brothers youth in detention. Two released detainees are also to appear on Dream2 TV, Saturday 8pm (Cairo time), together with two Mubrak’s National Democratic Party MPs. Kefaya activists Ahmad Salah and Nada al-Qassas are to debate political reform against Yehya Wahdan, the former State Security Colonel who became the MB for Bab el-She3reya district (formerly represented by Dr. Ayman Nour), and Dr. Sherin 3abdel 3aziz, Al-Waylee’s district MP. The talkshow host is Wael el-Ibrashi. […]
[…] Around 500 demonstrators gathered in front of the Press Syndicate today, to denounce the Israeli military operations in Gaza. The protestors, mostly nationalists and leftists, chanted against Israel’s assault on Gaza, the US support for Tel Aviv, and against the Egyptian Mukhabarrat whose agents are involved in mediations between the Israelis and Palestinians. The demonstrators, led by the two Kamals (Kamal Khalil and Kamal Abu 3eita), also chanted against Mubarak, his son, and the Egyptian businessmen who have links with Israel. The demonstrators called for war against Israel, abolition of the Camp David agreement, and halting the Egyptian cement and iron exports to Israel (some of which go into building the illegal Zionist settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territories). The chanting and the singing went on for an hour, on the doorsteps of the syndicate. Cars driving through Abdel Khaleq Tharwat Street where slowing to watch the demonstrators, and some flashed signs of support. Kamal Khalil, one of the Revolutionary Socialists’ leaders, called for the release of Sharqawi, Sha3er, Dr. Ayman Nour, and the Muslim Brothers detainees. Kamal reiterated the socialists’ line on Palestine: “The road to Jerusalem, passes through Cairo,” he shouted addressing the crowd. “Our liberation from Mubarak’s rule in Cairo, is linked to the Palestinians’ struggle for liberation from Zionist control, is linked to the Iraqi armed resistance to the American invasion. Every blow we strike against Mubarak here in Cairo, is a plus for the Palestinians and Iraqis. And every blow they strike against the Americans and Israelis is a boost for us. It is obvious now America is not interested in democracy. We never had an illusion to start with they were sincere about their proclaimed goals. Down with America! Down with Israel! Down with the Arab regimes!” An hour later, the protestors got into the syndicate, where Fathi Hammad, member of Hamas’ politburo made a speech, describing the plight of the 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. “We have no other means, but kidnapping occupation soldiers to free our people from Israel’s prisons,” he said. “There are women and children incarcerated. Talks never brought us anything. The Israelis promised to free the prisoners before, but all what they do is releasing common criminals or those whose sentences are about to finish.” […]