Egypt Press Syndicate drops membership of opposition leader Ayman Nour

The Egyptian press syndicate issued a statement on Monday announcing that Ayman Nour’s membership has been dropped because he hasn’t paid his subscription fees for five years.

In the statement the syndicate said that Nour submitted, through his lawyer, requests on 31 July 2017 to pay bills that had not been paid since 2012, although the deadline for payment is the end of March 2017, according to the syndicate’s regulations.

The Press Syndicate concluded in its statement that the decision to cancel Nour’s membership was not related to his membership of the Lawyers Syndicate.

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Nour is a former Egyptian presidential candidate who ran against Mubarak in 2005. He is an opponent of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and he frequently criticises the Egyptian authorities’ policies.

Al-Sisi and his allies have embarked on a sweeping campaign to eliminate opposition to his bid for presidency in the upcoming March elections. One candidate has been arrested, two pressured to stand down and a fourth faces disqualification.