Protesters storm HQ of opposition politician

Source: Agencies  |   2008-11-7  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

HUNDREDS of protesters stormed the headquarters of Egypt's most prominent opposition politician yesterday and set it on fire, injuring seven people, according to witnesses.

One said they used aerosol cans to spray flames at the headquarters of the al-Ghad party founded by Ayman Nour, who was jailed in 2005 after running against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Pro-government politician Moussa Moustafa Moussa recently won a court order to take over the al-Ghad headquarters.

Nour's wife, Gamila Ismail, who was inside the headquarters when it was attacked, has accused Moussa's supporters.

Moussa could not be immediately contacted for comment.

Police say the seven injured suffered from burns and smoke inhalation.

Black smoke billowed from the windows of the Ghad office next to a portrait of Nour, jailed on fraud charges after he challenged Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election.

An orange Ghad party flag fluttered in the breeze. Security sources said the fire broke out after confrontations between Ghad party members loyal to Nour and rivals whom he has long said are linked to Egypt's ruling party.

Both sides traded blame about who started the fire.

"We are under attack. They are burning the office. People are suffocating," Wael Nawara, a Ghad party official, said in a text message.

Later, he said that party members from Nour's Ghad had closed the door to the building to prevent the rival faction from entering and that the rivals had set the door on fire "trying to smoke us out".

He said Nour's Ghad party had anticipated the rivals would try to take over the office, and had made numerous police complaints asking for protection, but police normally present in the neighborhood were absent.

Officials from the Ghad faction that split from Nour said they had come to hold an annual meeting but that the loyalists had blocked their entry and threw fire bombs at them.