Tura Mazraa Prison
From: Ayman Nour
To: Esteemed Members of the European Union
Deputy Head of the European Parliament
I address this very short letter to you and to all the honorable and free people in the world,
to all the representatives of the free people and those whose consciences refuse oppression,
injustice, false accusations and merciless murder.
My letter is very short due to the circumstances out of my control restricting my freedom
and depriving me of my human rights, the foremost of which is the right to write, express
and reject the injustice and suffering I am subjected to!!
The day my freedom was taken away in January 2005, your great efforts –after God and
combined with the efforts of my supporters- played a crucial role in my release. The first
faces I saw –an honor to me- were the faces of a delegation of European male and female
parliament representatives. Your visit to me during my imprisonment is not only reason for
breaking the doors of this prison and my temporary release, it also gave me the possibility of
exercising my right in running for the first presidential election. I was imprisoned to prevent
me from running for the election in January 2005. With God's grace and the enthusiasm of
the reformists I was able to come in second to the president and be the only competitor to
him and his son despite the rigging and all forms of injustice, defamation and changing the
results. I also paid an extra price when my constituency's election results were rigged thus
causing me to lose my permanent seat in the parliament due to blatant rigging. Some of you
were in
Today I pay a new and high price as punishment for having run for the presidential election.
I am also being prevented from continuing the democratic reform path in
current regime can strengthen its presence by claiming there is no alternative for it other
than fundamentalism and terrorism, thus forcing people inside and outside
its presence.
Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, I do not pay this price alone. My children, family,
party, my whole generation and all the reformists in this country pay the price, too. I lost
my freedom, my work as a lawyer, journalist and chairman of the first and only civil political
party to be established in a quarter of a century, the duration of Mubarak's rule. I am
threatened of remaining in prison for five years and prevented from exercising my political
rights for another five years to guarantee that
making me an example to anyone who thinks of breaking the power monopoly not only in
I call upon you to exert every effort to defend my fair case not for my sake, nor for the sake
of my children or my party that is being destroyed, my human rights which are violated in
this prison every morning, or my life which illness, injustice and oppression are eating away
at. I ask you to defend my fair case to keep hope alive for the coming generations which we
do not want to lose hope. It is for these generations that I call upon you to exert every effort
to defend my fair case and to visit me in prison to witness the truth which the Egyptian
regime is very good at concealing and telling lies to prove the opposite. Free people of the
world. I am dying alone for a principle, for my country and for freedom. Please raise my
voice before my spirit departs this world.
Ayman Nour
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