Human rights activists have differed as to why the public prosecutor released Nour for health reasons. While some found it had nothing to do with President Mubarak's next visit to Washington, others considered it a message from the regime to the new American administration. They told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Nour would still remain banned from politics. Nigad el-Boraie, a human rights activist, ruled out that there was pressure on Egypt to release Ayman Nour. He said Nour sent many petitions to President Mubarak from prison, adding that the government had made a mistake by sending Nour to prison, which is why Mubarak has pardoned him like he pardoned Ibrahim Eissa before.
Boraie attributed Nour's release to the fact that he has already served three-quarters of his sentence, which is why the president ordered his release. On the impact of this decision on the issue of Saad Eddin Ibrahim he said: “Ibrahim was not convicted. He can return to Egypt anytime and close his case, provided the government gives guarantees. It would be a shame if Ibrahim died outside Egypt.”
On political reform under pressure from the new U.S. administration Boraie said: “The government does not mean what it says when it speaks of reform.”
Nasser Amin, Director of the Arab Center for the Independence of the judiciary, said that the former Egyptian/ U.S. relations had reached their worst levels after what happened in the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, when Bush and Mubarak refused to listen to each other's speeches. He believed the release decision is a message from the Egyptian regime to Obama that it wants to renew ties on the basis of objectivity and respect. “He who wants to shake hands with Obama must wash his hands first,” he said. Bahey Eddin Hassan, director of the Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies, concurred with this view. Yet he ruled out that there would be any breakthrough in human rights and democracy, contending that the release decision might have been taken to deflect attention from what is going on in parliament, drafting laws restricting freedoms, such as the satellite transmission law, the counter-terrorism law and the law on NGOs.
