WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday urged Egypt to reverse its ban on political dissident Ayman Nour s plans to travel to the United States.
The government is disappointed by the decision of the Egyptian Public Prosecutor’s Office to deny Ayman Nour permission to travel, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.
He added that Washington hoped Cairo will review its decision in this case and allow Mr. Nour to travel to the United States as planned.
In Cairo, Nour said on Wednesday that Egypt s Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud had barred him from traveling to the United States to take part in a seminar.
The prosecutor has turned down my request for authorization to travel to the United States, he told AFP.
Nour said he wanted to take part in conferences organized by the Egyptian community in the US and to speak at a seminar organized by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Freed from prison in February on health grounds after serving three years of a five-year sentence, Nour said he had planned to travel on Friday for a two-week visit to the United States.
But Nour, whose release was welcomed by Washington, only has the right to travel abroad for health reasons, a source in the prosecutor s office said.
Nour said, political motives are behind the refusal to let me travel to the United States, noting he had been allowed to travel to Brussels in May to address the European Parliament.
Nour, a lawyer, set up the Al-Ghad party in 2004 and mounted an unprecedented challenge against Mubarak during the 2005 presidential election before being jailed on forgery charges.
He came a distant second to Mubarak in what was Egypt s first multi-candidate presidential poll, amid violence and allegations of fraud. -AFP
