Egypt court sentences Ayman Nour

By Mohammed Abbas

CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian court sentenced opposition
politician and former presidential candidate Ayman Nour on
Saturday to five years in jail on forgery charges, his lawyer
and judicial officials said.

Nour, leader of the liberal Ghad (Tomorrow) Party and the
main challenger to President Hosni Mubarak in the September
elections, will appeal against the conviction, his lawyer said.

“This is injustice and we are going to take it to the court
of cassation,” lawyer Amir Salim told reporters.

Nour’s wife, Gameela Ismail, who has organized daily
protests against the trial, led supporters in chants of “Down
with Mubarak, Down with the regime.”

A Ghad Party statement accused the judge, Abdel Salam
Gomaa, of discrimination against Nour. It noted the same judge
found liberal sociologist and activist Saadeddin Ibrahim guilty
in 2002 of damaging Egypt’s reputation abroad.

“Throughout Nour’s trial, the judge showed a hostile
attitude toward Nour and his defense team, denying most of
their motions and allowing slander of Ayman Nour,” it said.

Nour, 41, has been on hunger strike in jail for the past
two weeks in protest at the trial, which he says is a
politically motivated attempt to remove him from the political
scene.

Nour has predicted the political struggle over the future
in Egypt will be between him and Mubarak’s son Gamal, a senior
official in the ruling National Democratic Party.

The forgery charges stem from Nour’s application to set up
the Ghad Party in 2004, a process which requires hundreds of
signatures of endorsement.

Nour was detained in January and held for six weeks for
questioning on allegations that many of the signatures were
forgeries. He repeatedly denied it and said the authorities
were trying to disrupt his campaign for the presidency.

“DISASTROUS SITUATION”

Nour won about 8 percent of the popular vote in the
presidential elections, second to Mubarak with 89 percent, but
he and all other Ghad Party members of parliament lost their
seats in parliament in November and December.

Deputy Ghad Party leader Nagi Ghatrifi, who is taking over
as acting leader, said the imprisonment of Ayman Nour could
lead to violence by opposition groups.

“It’s a disastrous situation and it will lead to more
disaster. The people need a way to express themselves and their
wishes. Ayman Nour gave them a chance,” he said.

“By having him in prison, the opposition will be more
severely felt and I don’t think their reaction will be
peaceful,” added Ghatrifi, a former Egyptian diplomat.

The same court in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City on Saturday
convicted two other defendants in the case to five years in
jail, including Ayman Ismail, who told the court the security
services had compelled him to testify against Nour.

Another defendant, Farag Shadid Abdel Hamid, who was tried
in absentia, was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

During Nour’s previous period of detention in early 2005,
the U.S. State Department said it had serious concerns about
the case. The Egyptian authorities set him free shortly
afterwards.

An editorial in the Washington Post on Friday said the Bush
administration should stand by Nour, if necessary by
withdrawing U.S. military assistance, worth more than $1
billion (577 million pounds) a year.

“The imprisonment of Mr. Nour will provide Mr. Bush with an
opportunity — and an imperative — to fight for the cause of
democracy in the heart of the Arab Middle East,” it said.

“Mr. Mubarak believes he can suppress his leading
democratic challenger and get away with it, because of Egypt’s
cooperation with Israel and support for the Palestinian
Authority. Mr. Bush, and Congress, must prove that wrong,” it
added.

European diplomats attending the trial said the European
Union would issue a joint statement on the case. “I don’t think
they (the European Union) will be praising what happened just
now,” said one of the diplomats, who did not give his name.