Will opposition leader be released, asks Mona El-Nahhas "I look forward to the day when conferences like this one include... of Egypt," said US President George W Bush during a speech delivered on Tuesday in the Czech Republic on the theme of spreading democracy. It may not be the first time the US has demanded the release of the jailed opposition leader, though it is the first time the US president has uttered that request. Indeed, Nour's wife, Gamila Ismail, recently accused Washington of ignoring her husband's imprisonment in an attempt to woo Cairo's support across a range of regional issues. Bush was quickly rebuked by the Egyptian government. "What he said concerning Egypt is an unacceptable intervention in our internal affairs," Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told reporters following Bush's speech. "US- Egyptian relations are strong enough to allow Egypt to express its astonishment and resentment of such statements," he added. Reports of the imminent release Nour on medical grounds -- attributed to US pressure by the kind of sources usually described as "reliable" -- resurface regularly, only to prove false. In the latest round of the saga, the Cairo Criminal Court -- in a hasty session convened last Thursday, and from which Nour's lawyers and supporters, reporters and photographers, were all barred -- turned down the latest petition for Nour's release. The court ruling was passed after press reports had confidently predicted Nour's release, linking it to US Vice-President Dick Cheney's recent visit to Egypt. Washington has been sharply critical of Nour's arrest. Nour's wife, was sufficiently hopeful of her husband's release that she arrived at court with a wheelchair, hoping that she would be taking her husband home. Nour's lawyer Amir Salem initially presented the petition, subsequently quashed by the court, to Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, requesting that his client be freed owing to ill-health. Nour, 43, suffers from diabetes, heart problems and hypertension, and last year underwent cardiovascular surgery while in prison. Salem's petition included medical reports prepared by eight independent forensic medicine specialists, recommending that Nour be released on medical grounds. Under Article 36 of the prison law, prisoners suffering from life-threatening health problems have the right to appeal to the prosecutor-general petitioning for release. In Nour's case, the prosecutor-general declined to either accept or reject the petition, referring it instead to the criminal court which originally sentenced Nour. Salem alleges that this is a move intended to avoid Mahmoud any embarrassment, should he feel compelled to order Nour's release. Nour was sentenced in December 2005 to a five-year prison term after being accused of forging the membership applications needed to set up the liberal Al-Ghad Party in October 2004. In its ruling, the court said that it accepted the official report issued last February by the Forensic Medicine Department which concluded that Nour's health does not necessitate his release, given that he can receive treatment in prison. Independent medical reports were dismissed by the court as inadmissible. In addition to the appeal to the prosecutor- general, Nour's lawyers are working on a separate legal track. They have also petitioned the Administrative Court for Nour's release. A verdict is expected on 12 June. During its last session on 22 May, the Administrative Court announced that a committee of medical experts appointed by the Ministry of Justice would carry out further tests on Nour prior to any ruling. Expectations that the court will rule in Nour's favour have no real basis, says political commentator Amr Hashem Rabie, who argues that Nour needs a presidential decree to be released. US pressure for an early release, he believes, has been counter- productive, serving only "to increase the regime's stubbornness regarding Nour's case". Rabie points to the continued mistreatment of Nour as evidence that the regime is unwilling to abandon its persecution of the man who, in 2005, stood against President Hosni Mubarak in the presidential elections. Two weeks ago, five senior police officers attacked Nour while he was being moved to a Giza court. According to Nour's wife, her husband was beaten in the courthouse stairwell and dragged down the stairs. Rabie believes that the regime is seeking to pressure Nour into begging for a presidential pardon, something that would harm his credibility as an opposition leader. Nour has consistently refused to apply to President Mubarak for clemency, a move that his defence team have advised on a number of occasions.
