VZCZCXRO4728
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #1934/01 1760923
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 250923Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5816
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 001934
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
NSC FOR WATERS AND DAVIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM KDEM EG
SUBJECT: AYMAN NOUR LETTERS TO POTUS AND THE SECRETARY
REF: CAIRO 1931
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION.
1. (SBU) Per reftel, following are the texts, as translated
by Embassy Cairo staff, of two separate letters from
imprisoned Al Ghad Party leader Ayman Nour to President Bush
and to the Secretary. Nour's wife passed the letters to
poloff on June 22, and asked that they not be passed to
President Bush or the Secretary until June 26. Nour wrote
the letters in apparent anticipation of a positive court
ruling in his appeal for health parole, that he expects will
be issued on June 26. Both letters are written as if a
ruling in his favor has already been issued, and are focused
on Nour's fear that such a ruling ordering his release will
not be implemented, and his apparent hope that the USG will
push the GOE to implement such a ruling immediately.
2. (SBU) Begin text of Embassy translation of Nour letter to
President Bush:
Dear Mr. President,
Greetings, appreciation, gratitude and warmth.
I write these lines to you from my prison cell, feeling
grateful for every sincere effort that has been made to lift
injustice away from me, after two years of restricting my
freedom under the pretext of executing a judicial ruling
against me, which God knows was fabricated, political in
nature and retaliatory. God also knows the violence and
cruelty that I have faced, and still face in prison, for the
same motives and reasons that put me in it. This cruelty did
not stop at simply depriving me of my freedom, nor just
depriving me of my rights as a prisoner, but has, in recent
months, amounted to depriving me of all my rights as a human
being, such as my right to medical treatment and to bodily
safety. Perhaps the unprecedented attack against me on May
12, 2007 has been the most bloody violation, leaving behind
sixteen injuries that will remain a living testimony to the
nature and reality of the penalty and hefty price that I, my
family and my party are paying, ever since I contested the
presidential elections in which I came in second to the
President (Mubarak) -- then I became his prisoner.
Mr. President, your words, which traveled from Prague to my
prison in South Cairo, were a surprise that broke my feelings
of loneliness and the pain of injustice and illness, and
which have amplified, every day since, my hope in that dawn
that will rise with freedom, justice and the victory of
principles over interests.
Mr. President, a few hours ago, an immediately-executable
ruling in my favor was issued by the Egyptian State Council,
releasing me for medical reasons. This after six months of
reviewing the case, during which the hope of this verdict
being issued was the candle that lit the darkness of this
horrible prison, and the dream that this prison will not turn
into a grave where my 42 years of age will end, and bring to
an end the lesson that some are trying to teach my generation
and all those who dream of freedom and human dignity.
Mr. President, there have been increasing doubts, since your
Prague speech, and the Appropriations Committee's most recent
decision to suspend a part of (U.S.) assistance (to Egypt),
that the authorities who restricted my freedom under the
pretext of executing a judicial ruling, will now not execute
this new ruling in my case, out of concern that it would look
like a response to foreign pressures.
This attitude is apparent in recent articles in
government-backed newspapers, and through some in the
government and judicial apparatus, which began, since the
Prague speech, to make up judicial decisions that ae false,
both in form and matter, claiming a typ of conflict of
rulings, in order to keep me in rison for more years,
awaiting the conclusion ofthis conflict, which ultimately
would mean my deth in this prison. I believe that the next
hourscall for a serious effort that aims to attain a
pecific end; namely, the implementation of the issed
verdict, and not the circumvention of it.
ishing you the best.
Dr. Ayman Nour
Torah Al azra,ah Prison
South Cairo
End text of letter o POTUS.
CAIRO 00001934 002 OF 003
3. (SBU) Begin text of Embassy translation of Nour letter to
the Secretary:
Dear Madame Secretary Dr. Condoleezza Rice,
Greetings, appreciation, gratitude and warmth.
I still remember the few words we exchanged during our first
and last meeting, with the same gratitude and appreciation
with which I remember the efforts you have exerted throughout
the two years that I have spent here in my prison cell; from
where I write to you these lines that escape the hell of
injustice, coercion and the assassination of all rights and
human dignity.
Dear Madame Secretary, all the different efforts that were
exerted locally and internationally to release me and put an
end to this farce, have always collided with a sturdy
obstacle - that Egyptian authorities claim that they are
simply implementing a judicial ruling, that must be executed.
And regardless of the veracity of this claim or its absolute
falseness, a few hours ago, an immediately-executable ruling
was issued in my favor, releasing me for medical reasons and
upholding the ruling by the Egyptian State Council after six
months of reviewing the case. There is an impending danger
threatening my life and risking my permanent incapacitation,
which calls for my immediate release, from the minute of
issuing the verdict, which is executable immediately as soon
as drafted.
Madame Secretary, I feel deep gratitude for those generous
words that President Bush spoke in Prague, and which brought
back to me in my prison so much confidence, and hope that
principles may prevail over interests. Nonetheless, these
words, followed by the Appropriations Committee's recent
decision (regarding U.S. assistance to Egypt) have raised
many doubts about the implementation of the ruling in my
favor (which legally should be implemented immediately),
under the pretext that the (Egyptian) authority which
unjustly imprisoned me will now regard executing the ruling
in my favor a submission to foreign pressures. So, this time
I will pay with my life as the price for stubbornness and
unjustified revenge, after I paid for two years with my
freedom as the hefty price for legitimate electoral
competition that gave me the title of "first runner-up" to
the President, which was amended hours later to "Prisoner of
the President"
Madame Secretary Dr. Rice, for days, the official press as
well as the police and judicial corps have been paving the
way to impede the execution of this historical ruling as soon
as it is issued. For instance, they have threatened the
presiding judge in the case that a ruling in my favor will be
because of American pressures, and he will be accused of
being a U.S. agent. Also, through efforts that that have
nothing to do with the law and have no precedence in Egyptian
judicial history, the government got the very same judge who
first ruled in this very same fabricated case (and who had
ruled against Saad El Din Ibrahim years before me) to reject
releasing me on medical grounds (although it is legally not
within his jurisdiction), without me even appearing before
him, in order to create a fabricated and fake case of
conflict of rulings. Based on that ruling, the authorities
may claim that they have to refer this conflict in judicial
decisions to the Supreme Constitutional Court before they can
release me, which could also take several more years.
Madame Secretary, this legal charade, the chapters of which
started long before the issuance of this ruling (which is
immediately executable under the law), only means that there
a decision to execute me outside of law, and to bloodlessly
assassinate me. Unfortunately, though we committed no sin,
I, my family, my party, and my supporters have paid a heavy
price during the past two years through being made an example
of, and through the deprivation of my right to physical
safety and human dignity.
Unconditionally implementing this ruling and not
circumventing would allow to taste freedom, even briefly, and
help my health which has significantly deteriorated, even
though I am only 42 years old, because of being deprived of
medical treatment and my repeated subjection in prison to
brutal accidents and abuse; most recently in May 2007 when
the photos they took of the marks on my body were leaked.
But unfortunately, this was not the first such incident of
abuse and most certainly will not be the last, if they
refrain from executing this ruling which gives me back my
freedom only (I note that my political rights and my right to
CAIRO 00001934 003 OF 003
a professional career would remain suspended for several more
years, unless the President issues a full amnesty, which he
previously refused to do when more than a third of the
members of parliament submitted such a request in 2006).
Madame Secretary, the next few hours call for a special
effort that aims to reach the goal of implementing this
ruling which is immediately executable. It is likely that
the authorities will try to adopt a contradictory official
position under the pretext of some lie or forged claim, which
would make it difficult for them to abide by this ruling
which is immediately executable; and more so to abide by
reason and logic and having them prevail over stubbornness,
retaliation and exemplary punishment and all the episodes of
this tragic series which refuses to end so far.
When I hope for a special effort that aims to attain the
implementation of this judicial ruling, I know very well that
it would be a difficult effort and not an easy or a welcomed
one, but it is of course important and valuable if it attains
its goal, and remains forever as such even if, God forbid, it
does not attain it.
Thankfully, I repeat my gratitude, appreciation and my
continuous wishes of luck and happiness for your dear person.
Dr. Ayman Nour
Torah Al Mazra,ah Prison
South Cairo
End text of Embassy translation.
JONES