Constitutional amendments THE LONG-AWAITED constitutional amendments suggested by President Hosni Mubarak's presidential election programme will be referred to the People's Assembly next week, reports Gamal Essam El-Din. Insider parliamentary sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that the People's Assembly and Shura Council will hold two meetings next Sunday and Monday respectively to debate a number of constitutional amendments. The amendments will focus on achieving the goals set out in President Hosni Mubarak's presidential election programme. Sources said the details of the amendments will be discussed by the two houses after Christmas and Eid Al-Adha. The discussions will take more than three months and will be put to the public in a referendum before the mid-term elections of the Shura Council by the end of next April. Parliamentary Speaker Fathi Sorour told Al-Ahram Weekly last week that the more than 20 constitutional articles to be amended would be divided into four groups. These include re-amending Article 76 to make it easier for political parties to field presidential candidates, regulating the relationship between the president and government, reinforcing the roles of the People's Assembly and Shura Council in overseeing the government and ensuring that there is a minimum quota of women in parliament. Mohamed Kamal, spokesman for the ruling NDP Policies Committee led by Gamal Mubarak, said yesterday that the Council recommended "upgrading judicial supervision of elections." Hard times DESPITE his ill health, prominent jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour appeared in a Cairo court to face a new set of complaints levelled by MP Mustafa Bakri. Bakri, editor-in-chief of the opposition weekly Al-Osboua, filed three motions against Nour over articles Nour wrote in prison and which were published in his Ghad Party mouthpiece. The articles said Bakri had close ties with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and President Hosni Mubarak. Another complaint was over an article in Al-Ghad newspaper which allegedly insulted Islam. The article, published in October, is said to have transgressed the wives and companions of the Prophet Mohamed. A third complaint was Nour owning a gun without a license. "Nour has been in prison for a year and the gun was seized by state security two years ago," Gamila Ismail, Nour's wife, told reporters. "All charges are meant to discredit him and keep him in jail," she added. Nour, the runner-up in last year's presidential elections, is serving a five-year sentence for forging official documents. He claims, however, that the charges were intended to keep him away from politics. The 42-year-old politician's health is said to be deteriorating in prison. He underwent heart surgery last week. Ismail said Nour filed a complaint against prison authorities for having been administrated inappropriate medication that led to bleeding in the eyes. Paying the price MOHAMED Abdel-Qoddous, head of the Freedoms Committee at the Press Syndicate, was allegedly beaten while trying to break through a security cordon meant to prevent a protest organised by the committee in support of a jailed journalist. Ahmed Ezzeddin, a journalist with the banned Muslim Brotherhood-leaning weekly Afaaq Arabiya (Arab horizons), was arrested last week during a raid on MB members after student members of the Brotherhood staged a demonstration at Al-Azhar University. The protest was restaged on Monday. The committee issued a statement condemning Ezzeddin's arrest, urged the general prosecutor to release him and demanded the Emergency Law of 1981 be canceled. The committee said Ezzeddin had no connection with the student protests and called on all journalists to take part in a sit-in to protest against the arrests of journalists. Compiled by Salonaz Sami
