AYMAN NOUR LETTERS TO POTUS AND THE SECRETARY

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