Ayman Nour freed

Ayman Nour, one of Egypt’s leading dissidents, was unexpectedly freed today. The liberal democrat was imprisoned on trumped-up charges of forging signatures after challenging President Hosni Mubarak in the 2005 elections. His release is being interpreted as a gesture to President Barack Obama’s new administration.

“Why they did this is unknown. … I am coming out with an open heart and am ready to work and nothing has changed. A lot of things have been put on hold over the past years,” he told the Associated Press.

Democracy advocates and human rights activists have been pushing for his release, and observers have encouraged the new Obama administration to maintain open support for political dissidents like Nour.

Nour had been badly treated in prison, complaining in an interview with Agence France Presse from jail last year, that the regime’s approach to him had shifted from “political assassination” to “physical destruction“.

Former President George W. Bush cited Nour as one of several prominent dissidents in a June 2007 speech in Prague.  ”There are many other dissidents who could not join us because they are being unjustly imprisoned or held under house arrest. I look forward to the day when conferences like this one include … Ayman Nour of Egypt,” Bush said.

Nour last year wrote a letter to presidential candidate Obama urging him to promote democratic reform in the Middle East, stating that the then- presidential candidate “embodies the dreams of Arab reformers for democracy and change.”