's 2005 roller-coaster ride has ended with the hero in jail "Down with Hosni Mubarak" was 's reaction to last week's court verdict. The leading opposition politician had just been sentenced to a five-year jail term on a forgery charge. The verdict was the strongest of the many blows that had been directed against Nour in a year during which the fiery politician was subject to non-stop attacks from the government. "All these measures were taken against Nour simply because he presented a real challenge to [President Hosni] Mubarak and his son Gamal," was the official reaction of the Ghad Party, of which Nour is the head. "It's a political ruling," said Nour's lawyer Amir Salem, who said Nour intended to contest the verdict at the Court of Cassation. Nour's wife, TV announcer Gamila Ismail, who organised daily protests against the trial, led supporters in chants of "Down with Mubarak", "Down with the regime". Several human rights activists were shocked by what they called a political ruling. They called upon Mubarak not to endorse the verdict, and to order a re-trial. They agreed that the timing of the ruling -- during the Christmas holidays -- was deliberately meant to avoid a quick reaction from Europe and the US. Nevertheless, the verdict produced an angry response from the US administration. "The conviction of Mr Nour calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom and the rule of law," State Department spokesman Scott McClellan said. The US, he said, was also disturbed by reports that Nour's health had seriously declined because of a hunger strike he launched two weeks ago to protest the conditions of his trial and detention. "The US calls upon the Egyptian government to act under the laws of Egypt in the spirit of its professed desire for increased political openness and dialogue within Egyptian society, and out of humanitarian concern, to release Mr Nour from detention," McClellan added. In a separate statement, the State Department said Nour's trial had been "marred by irregularities and inconsistencies, and has failed to meet the international standards of transparency and respect for the rule of the law". In its lead editorial on Friday, a day before the verdict was announced, The Washington Post urged the Bush administration to stand alongside Nour in case he was sentenced, and withhold military and economic aid to Egypt to force Nour's release. The US stance backing Nour has been used by the state in the past to tarnish his image, mainly by labelling him a US agent. That's what happened in January, when Nour was first arrested and the US pressured for his release. The arrest of the 41-year-old lawyer and former MP came following charges that he forged nearly 1,400 membership applications required for the registration of his liberal Ghad Party, which was officially licensed in October 2004. At the time of his arrest, many thought the state was trying to silence the outspoken activist. Nour's supporters cited his radical tone in attacking the regime, his calls for political and constitutional reform, and his rejection of the idea of power inheritance. In March, and after 40 days of detention at Tora prison, Attorney- General Maher Abdel-Wahed released Nour on LE10,000 bail, after his arrest strained Egypt's relations with the US. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was rumoured to have cancelled a trip to Egypt in March to protest Nour's detention. Following his release, Nour was referred to the Cairo Criminal Court, where his trial started in June. According to Nour's lawyers, during the trial the court showed a hostile attitude towards the defendant. It was the same court panel that had sentenced sociologist and democracy advocate Saadeddin Ibrahim to seven years in jail in 2001. Ibrahim later won an appeal and was acquitted. Nour's lawyers think the government deliberately chose the same court for Nour's trial. "This court has a dark history. It has always been chosen to try political opponents," Nour's lawyer said. In September, Nour was among 10 candidates running for president in Egypt's first ever multi-candidate presidential elections. He finished second behind President Mubarak, getting 500,000 votes. In October, Nour asked that the panel trying him be replaced, citing its inability to provide him with a fair trial. His request was quashed by the Appeals Court, which also fined him LE9,000. Meanwhile, along with three other members of the party's higher committee, the party's former deputy chairman Moussa Mustafa Moussa decided to challenge Nour's leadership of Ghad. They held an emergency general assembly during which they voted for Nour's dismissal, and elected Moussa as their new leader. Nour argued that such meetings lacked legitimacy, since the four dissidents were dismissed from party ranks before holding their assembly. According to Nour, the split was orchestrated by the state, which used agents inside the party to destroy the Ghad ahead of parliamentary polls. After the verdict, the party's future remains unclear. The only thing that seems certain is that the absence of Nour, the party's main driving force, will weaken it. Political observers say the government will either settle the current power struggle in the party in favour of Moussa, or appeal to freeze Ghad the same way it did in 2000 with the Islamist- oriented Labour Party. But in 2005, Nour also lost more than control of his party and his freedom. In the November parliamentary polls, he also lost his seat in the Bab Al-Shaariya constituency, after holding it for 10 years. Before the elections, Bab Al-Shaariya's streets were plastered with banners accusing Nour of being a US agent. Shop owners were prevented from hanging banners supporting him. Security bodies intimidated voters, ordering them to cast their votes for National Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Yehya Wahdan. On the day of the poll, nearly 2,000 voters who were not Bab Al-Shaariya residents were bussed into polling stations to cast their votes for the NDP candidate. "Let them take the seat," Nour said following his loss. "It's not the seat that makes a politician respectable." In that regard, some would say that the state's attempts to tarnish his image have actually helped Nour, making him something of a hero to a public that tends to sympathise with people it senses the government is picking on. By Mona El-Nahhas
