CAIRO: Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour, the main challenger to President Hosni Mubarak in the 2005 election, said on Wednesday that authorities had barred him from traveling to the United States.
Nour, who was jailed shortly after the 2005 vote on forgery charges, had been due to travel to New York, where he said he had been invited by the Council on Foreign Relations to give an address next week on the political situation in Egypt.
“I was not allowed to travel,” Nour told Reuters, describing the decision as politically motivated.
“This is illegal according to ... the constitution, which says that all Egyptians are entitled to leave the country or emigrate whenever and wherever they desire.”
Nour, who came a distant second to Mubarak in Egypt’s first multi-candidate presidential elections, was released in February on health grounds after spending over three years in jail.
A source in the prosecutor’s office said that under the conditions of his release, Nour was allowed to travel abroad only for medical treatment. The source said that Nour, who attended a conference in Belgium in April, had been permitted to make that trip on medical grounds.
