Prominent opposition politician 's high-profile court case is nearing its end, reports Mona El-Nahhas On 24 December, the Cairo Criminal Court will hand down its final verdict in Ghad Party Leader 's long-running forgery trial. Nour will remain in Tora Prison until then, where he has been detained since 5 December based on head judge Adel Abdel-Salam Gomaa's orders. Gomaa provided no reason for the detention; a move Nour's defense team said was a prelude to a guilty verdict. This week, Nour told reporters that he had begun a hunger strike to protest the treatment he has been getting in prison. "I will continue until I die," he said. "My detention is a form of terrorism. It's persecution." Speaking from behind the caged dock at a trial session on Monday, Nour claimed his fingerprints were taken on a paper labeled with the word "convict". He said that made it seem like "they already had a ruling convicting me". Dressed in a white suit, Nour told reporters that it was "regrettable that honourable people face imprisonment, while the real forgers who rigged presidential and parliamentary election results are free to enjoy their power and authority". The 41-year-old Nour, whose trial has been in the headlines for nearly six months, is charged with forging some 1400 membership applications that he used to register his liberal Ghad Party last year. Nour pleaded not guilty, arguing that the case against him was state-fabricated, and aimed at ruining his political career. Five other defendants, all of whom are former employees of Nour's, face the same charges. They are claiming that Nour ordered them to forge the documents. At one point in the trial, one of the defendants decided to recant his testimony, saying security bodies had pressured him into blaming Nour. According to Nour, the other four co-defendants are state agents who infiltrated his party and forged the paperwork in order to frame him. During Monday's session, lawyers for these four co- defendants claimed that their clients were innocent victims: because Nour allegedly ordered them to forge the documents, they said, there was no criminal intent on their part. One of the defendant's lawyers called his client, Mervat Saber, "an ignorant woman. She did not realise that what she was doing was a crime. She merely thought she was helping someone who very much impressed her, until she discovered the truth about him". At one point, defendant Ismail Zakareya's lawyer Ahmed Gomaa accused Nour of being a US agent. He said Nour had forged his Russian PhD degree, and was "taking orders from his masters". Gomaa's rant caused a stir in the courtroom, and Nour's defense team asked the judge to stop the tirade of accusations. "We appeal to you to protect us," said Amir Salem, one of Nour's lawyers. Even though the judge asked Gomaa to stick to the legal aspects of the case, the lawyer chose to continue his outburst. A screaming match then erupted between Gomaa and Nour's defense team, prompting the judge to stand up and say, " I am leaving," as security personnel attempted to stop the battle. Fifteen minutes later the judge came back and resumed the trial. When Nour asked to speak, the judge refused his request. The session also included testimony from the Higher State Security Prosecution, which attempted to refute some of the points brought up by Nour's lawyers. These included accusations that they were biased again Nour. "You should have searched for justice," Nour's lawyer Salem had told the court. "You should have questioned police officer Adel Yassin, who conspired with [one of the defendants] and fabricated the case against Nour." Instead, he said, "you follow the orders of the prosecutor-general, who doesn't have any kind of independence, and merely follows the justice minister's lead." During a previous session, an eyewitness named Mohamed Fawzi had told the court that he overheard Yassin talking about Nour with the second defendant. "Let's get rid of him before the elections," Yassin supposedly said. At another of last week's sessions, one of Nour's lawyers, Farid El-Deeb, said the charges against Nour were politicised. "Just skimming through the case, I was appalled by the amount of injustice and framing that has taken place. It's part of the continuing series of taking revenge and persecuting a fiery opposition figure," El-Deeb said. He told the court that the case was filled with legal loopholes. One example was that the prosecutor-general ordered investigations to start on 18 January, 11 days before Nour's parliamentary immunity was lifted on 29 January, and as such a clear violation of the law. The Higher State Security Prosecution's indictment was null and void, argued El-Deeb, since it was based on illegal investigations. El-Deeb also argued that state security prosecution should not have referred the case to the Criminal Court. According to El-Deeb, the forged documents were confiscated on 27 January, when Nour still had his immunity; as such, they should not be used as evidence against him. The police raid on Nour's home and office should also be nullified, he said, since the prosecution warrant offered no cause for the search. "Nour did not need to forge 1000 or 2000 applications to prove his popularity," El-Deeb said. "Last September's elections clearly showed that nearly half a million people -- not just 2000 -- support Nour." Outside the court, hundreds of Nour's supporters had gathered since morning to chant anti-Mubarak slogans and call for Nour's release. Streets leading to the court were cordoned off by hundreds of security personnel. Nour was arrested in January. In March, he was released on LE10,000 bail after his detention strained Egypt's relations with the US. His trial started in June. Last week, US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the US was calling upon the Egyptian government "to make every effort to ensure that this trial conforms to international standards... we've also made it clear that we will be watching this trial closely." Nour was President Hosni Mubarak's main rival in Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential elections in September, winning eight per cent of the vote compared to Mubarak's 89 per cent. In subsequent parliamentary elections, however, Nour lost his seat representing the Cairo constituency of Bab Al-Shariya. He blamed government intimidation, electoral fraud and ballot box tampering for his defeat.
