The Egyptian Administrative Court issued a ruling Saturday that presidential candiate for the Ghad al-Thawra Party Ayman Nour is not eligible to run for president, asking that Nour's recent pardon be revoked. Justice Abdul Salam al-Nagar, vice-president of the Council of State and president of the court, said that because Nour did not serve a complete sentence and nor was he rehabilitated post-sentence, he does not have the political right to run for president. Nagar asked for the pardon's revocation despite the fact that he himself issued it, he said. The judges said that Nour is still on trial for fraud according to the Court of Cassation, which turned down Nour's request that the charges be revoked. The Administrative Court announced the verdict following a special session, which lasted approximately 4 hours. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, recently restored Nour's full political rights, which had been suspended as the result of a forgery conviction in 2005. Nour came second in the 2005 election, Egypt's first multi-candidate race for the presidency, after former President Hosni Mubarak. After Nour was granted amnesty, the supreme body of Ghad al-Thawra Party held a meeting during which they unanimously elected Nour as the party's presidential candidate. Ghad al-Thawra won two seats in the People's Assembly for the Democratic Alliance headed by the Freedom and Justice Party.
