Freed Egyptian opposition politician has no plans to run for office

Feb 19, 2009, 16:45 GMT

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.