Egypt's Nur says government wants him to die in jail - Region

CAIRO -- Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nur, whose political career came to a crashing end after he challenged President Hosni Mubarak in elections, now says that his arch foe wants him to die behind bars.

"I'm going to die in this prison," Nur said in his first-ever interview since being jailed in December 2005. "That's what they want."

The 42-year-old lawyer said that he is now paying the price for daring to compete head-to-head with Egypt's leader in the country's first ever multi-candidate presidential elections in 2005.

Today, as parliament considers Mubarak's proposed constitutional amendments aimed at "strengthening political parties," the only legal party to have posed a challenge to the regime has been rendered impotent.

Its fiery leader was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and jailed for forging powers of attorney needed to set up his Ghad (Tomorrow) party, a charge widely seen as politically motivated.

But that was only the beginning.

Now, he faces a total of 32 charges for various crimes, all of which he said are fabricated, but could keep him in front of courts and in prison for a long time to come.

"When they arrested me, I understood they were trying to silence me. But now they are refusing to give me treatment, refusing to allow my own doctors to keep track of my medical condition," he said. "They are just waiting for me to die."

Nur suffers from diabetes and is insulin dependent. He said that he is not receiving proper medical care, resulting in a steep decline in his health as he is ravaged by the symptoms characteristic of the disease.

"I'm losing my eyesight, I have cardiac problems, I have terrible headaches, and my bruises and wounds don't heal," he said, showing two open wounds on his legs that he said he sustained in a fall over a month ago.

He said that he has gone from being a victim of "political assassination" to being subjected to "physical destruction."

Nur received his visitors at the warden's office of the high security Tora prison in southern Cairo, where most of his visits are conducted under the watchful eye of the warden and a number of his officers.

Conversations were held at just above a whisper.

Looking pale and dressed in the required dark blue prison colors, the once dynamic Nur who brought cheering crowds to their feet in political rallies across the country, now spoke in a flat, dispirited tone.

"They are clearly punishing me. Why didn't they just sentence me to death? Why torture me and humiliate me this way?" he asked, his voice breaking.

On Monday, 22 Egyptian rights groups petitioned Mubarak to reduce Nur's sentence on medical grounds.

"The undersigned organizations call on the president of the republic to reduce the sentence of Dr. Ayman Nur, to consider the time spent in jail sufficient and to release him," the statement read.

"What Nur is subjected to in prison is a flagrant violation of human rights," the groups added, condemning the lack of appropriate medical care.

Nur's January 2005 arrest prompted US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cancel a trip to Egypt in protest, and US pressure eventually obtained Nur's release on bail in March, allowing him to run for the September 2005 presidential elections.

He staged a bold presidential campaign on a liberal platform that attracted supporters across the country, and was seen as a viable alternative to the ruling party's own liberal wing, dominated by Mubarak's son Gamal.

But while his outspoken criticism of the regime and the Mubarak family in particular earned him international attention, the backlash was felt at home almost immediately with systematic efforts to discredit him.

In December 2005, three months after the elections in which he came in a distant second, he was sentenced to five years in prison for fraud.

He went from being the US' poster boy for Egyptian "democratic reformers" to being "forgotten by the world," he said.

During a visit to Egypt in 2006, Rice was asked by reporters why the US no longer mentions Nur. She replied that every time she comes to Egypt, she brings up the issue.

"You didn't ask me this time," Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told his American counterpart in front of reporters.

At the prison, Nur is strictly segregated from the other inmates, especially members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, he said.

"They go on their break, and when they all finish, [the guards] shut their doors and then I go on my break," he said. "So much is left to the authorities' discretion," said Nur.

If a doctor is allowed to visit him, he cannot bring his own instruments or medicines, his family cannot always bring him food, and he has been barred from writing articles from prison, he said.

"There was a time when we dreamed of big constitutional changes," Nur said. "Now I would just like our current constitution to be applied, to be given my rights."