Rice calls on Egypt to free opposition leader

Washington, Feb 8: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for the release of ailing, imprisoned Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour ahead of a meeting with Egypt's foreign minister today.

Nour, the main challenger to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2005 presidential elections, is serving a 5-year sentence for submitting forged documents when setting up his liberal political party. He says the charges were fabricated.

Twenty-three Egyptian human rights groups urged Egyptian Mubarak last month to free Nour, a diabetic whose health has seriously deteriorated since a December. 18 cardiac catheterization procedure in a Cairo hospital.

The State Department has voiced concern about his condition and last month urged Egypt to consider releasing him on medical grounds.

Nour won 8 per cent of the vote in the 2005 elections, coming a distant second to Mubarak on 89 per cent.

Speaking at a congressional hearing, Rice sought to rebut criticism that she has muted her calls for democracy and human rights in Egypt and said she raised Nour's case with Mubarak when they met in Egypt in January.

''I did raise ... cases like Ayman Nour, where we think that his release would be wholly appropriate, and internal reforms in Egypt,'' Rice, who is scheduled to meet Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday afternoon, told lawmakers. ''We are going to continue to press for those.'' A statement released by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, Egypt's main independent rights group, on January. 22 said 23 rights groups were asking Mubarak to reduce his sentence to time he has already served.

It said Nour's family had said prison authorities prevented his doctors and lawyers from visiting him, violating both the Egyptian constitution and international agreements.

Reuters