Region | Egypt

Nour blames authorities for office blaze

A jailed Egyptian opposition leader has accused the authorities of involvement in destroying the headquarters of his party in central Cairo last week.

  • By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
  • Published: 00:11 November 11, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Citizens try to escape from Al Ghad Party headquarters in Cairo after a blaze broke out on Thursday.
  • Image Credit: EPA

Cairo: A jailed Egyptian opposition leader has accused the authorities of involvement in destroying the headquarters of his party in central Cairo last week.

Ayman Nour, now in jail convicted of forgery, said on Monday that he had notified the state authorities of a possible attack by a rival faction in his party Al Ghad four days before the attack took place.

"No one lifted a finger to pre-empt this attack," he added in a statement from his prison outside Cairo.

Supporters of Nour and his opponents have traded blame on clashes, which erupted at the party main office in central Cairo on Thursday. Seven people were hurt and police arrested dozens from both sides.

Nour, 46, came a distant second after President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's first competitive presidential election in 2005.

He is serving five years in prison after a local court found him guilty of forging official documents to set up his party. His supporters say the conviction is politically motivated. Mubarak, 80, has refused to pardon Nour, a diabetic, on health grounds.

"I was horrified in my prison to see some people, dismissed by the party's general assembly, attempt to take control of my office and set it ablaze," Nour said in his statement.

"When I leave prison on June 21 after the end of my term, I'll declare that all of Egypt's streets are the site of my party."

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