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Egypt court sentences Ayman Nour

Posted on: Saturday, 24 December 2005, 05:00 CST

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.

Source: REUTERS

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