CAIRO, 30 October 2005 — Egypt’s attorney general yesterday cleared firebrand opposition leader Ayman Nour in a bribery case, easing the pressure on the embattled politician ahead of parliamentary polls. But the 40-year-old MP and Ghad (tomorrow) party leader still faces separate charges of forging documents for the creation of his party over which he was remanded in custody for six weeks earlier this year.
Attorney General Maher Abdul Wahid said he was dropping the bribery case against Nour for lack of evidence. Nur was accused of involvement in a case in which Ayman Barakat, a lawyer working in his office, allegedly bribed an innocent man, Ashraf Mansur, to go to jail instead of another man, Walid Al-Gilda. Barakat allegedly paid Mansur 15,000 pounds ($2,610) to impersonate Gilda, who was suspected of having forged documents for an unspecified chamber of commerce.
Meanwhile, Egyptian rights and civic groups filed a court case against the electoral commission yesterday over conditions they claim will impede their ability to monitor the elections. “We are suing the commission and the minister of justice in his capacity as chairman” of the commission, Negad Borai, head of the Cairo-based Group for Democratic Development, told AFP.
