Egypt

In: Journal of democracy, Band 17, Heft 4, S. 181-185

Abstract

Ayman Nour, a former member of the Egyptian parliament & the founder of the Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) party, was arrested & imprisoned in January 2005 on charges of forging signatures in connection with the establishment of the party, charges that he strongly denied & that were widely regarded as spurious. Released in March 2005 & allowed to run for the presidency, Nour finished second in the September presidential elections with more than seven percent of the vote. In December 2005, however, he was sentenced to five years in prison. In June 2006, the letter below from Nour to Edward McMillan-Scott, vice-president of the European Parliament, was smuggled out of prison. Adapted from the source document.