Egypt opposition politician sues President Mubarak's son (Roundup)

Oct 24, 2009, 17:04 GMT

Cairo- Egyptian opposition figure Ayman Nour, who ran against President Hosny Mubarak in the 2005 presidential elections, said Saturday he plans to take Mubarak's son, Gamal, to court.

Nour told the German Press Agency dpa that that he intended to sue Gamal Mubarak, the head of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP)'s Policies Committee, for acting as 'the unofficial ruler of the country.'

The announcement comes even as media reports swirled that President Mubarak is backing away from appointing his son as his successor. Mubarak has repeatedly said he has never considered letting his son take up the presidency, whenever the elder Mubarak decides to retire.

Nour, who was released from prison last February after serving more than three years on charges he falsified signatures in support of his 2005 electoral bid, said he would sue Gamal Mubarak in Cairo's Supreme Administrative Court on charges of 'using the privileges of executive power without constitutional rights.'

The former head of the opposition al-Ghad Party had been released on health grounds, on the condition that he not participate in politics.

The opposition figure accused the younger Mubarak of 'mobilizing the Egyptian security forces' to organize public meetings as part of an NDP rural development and social-justice programme.

Earlier this month, Nour launched a campaign, alongside other opposition figures, against hereditary succession in the Egyptian presidency.

As part of that campaign, he visited the southern Egyptian cities of Luxor and Qena, where he visited villages that are part of the NDP's development programme, as well as the party's headquarters.

Since Mubarak appointed his son as head of the NDP's Policies Committee in 2002, many in Egypt and abroad have speculated that Gamal Mubarak, 45, was being groomed for the presidency.

Both Mubaraks have dismissed that speculation.

The independent Egyptian daily al-Shorouk on Saturday quoted 'opposition sources close to the decision-making circles in the National Democratic Party (NDP)' as saying that the idea of a hereditary succession of the presidency is losing favour in Egypt's presidential palace.

'The reason is (Mubarak's) fear for his sons' future after him amid the political changes taking place in the country,' the paper reported, citing unnamed sources.

Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981, in August told US television viewers that he never discussed the idea with his son.

'(Succession) was never raised between me and my son. It is not on my mind to have my son inherit (my office),' he said. 'It is the decision of the people to elect who would represent them.'

'If the president does not run for re-election, and his son also does not, we will be ready with our candidate, because we will support anything to get the country out of where it is now,' said Mamdouh Qinawi, head of the Constitutional Social Free Party.

Qinawi told al-Shorouk that, in such a scenario, his preferred candidate would be Nobel Prize winner Mohammad ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, 'because of his political and legal experience.'

Other opposition activists and expatriate Egyptian groups have mentioned ElBaradei's name as a possible candidate for the post, alongside that of Arab League chief Amr Mussa.

In an interview with al-Shorouk last week, Mussa refused to rule out the possibility of making a bid for the presidency.

'The problem is not with Gamal Mubarak, but rather with the post- Mubarak period. Is Mubarak permitted to run for presidency when he turns 83 in 2011?' Hassan Nafaa, a political science professor and the head of a campaign against hereditary succession in the Egyptian presidency, told al-Shorouk.