Today the Supreme Council of Armed Forces decided to drop all charges against the Egyptian liberal politician Ayman Nour and to give him his political rights back. Ayman Nour was the only one who dared to be candidate against Hosni Mubarak in the presidential elections of 2005. In January 2005, during the presidential campaign Nour was imprisoned.

Thanks to a strong intervention of Edward McMillan-Scott in March 2005, he was released from prison and started his presidential campaign. In December 2005 Nour was again put in prison, after being sentenced for five years. In February 2009 he was released on health grounds, but the fake charges against him were never dropped, even not after the revolution. Contrary to some other politicians like Khairat Al-Shater, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, SCAF made the decision as late as possible in order to give Ayman Nour little chance to collect the necessary signatures for his candidacy for the presidency of Egypt.

Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE group leader said: “I am very glad that Ayman Nour, a long standing friend of ALDE, is finally a politically free man again. Finally, justice has been done. I am proud to welcome Ayman Nour to the Conference we are holding in Barcelona on Friday 30th March. We will hear there directly from him what his political plans for the near future are. But already today, I want to send him congratulations from the entire ALDE Group."

Edward McMillan-Scott (UK, Lib Dem) and Parliament's Vice President for Democracy and Human Rights added: “I have been fighting already for more then six years for today's verdict. It is sad that the SCAF had to wait for more than a year after the revolution in Egypt to undo the unjust charges of Hosni Mubarak. I can only hope that this is another sign that slowly Egypt is moving in the right direction. I am pleased that I will be able to congratulate Ayman Nour in person in Barcelona this week at the Liberal conference on the anniversary of the Arab Spring. I am sure he knows that he will get our support for whatever his plans are in the presidential elections."