End of siege SECURITY forces on Wednesday ended a week-long siege of a Sinai mountain used as a hideout by Islamist militants suspected in killing 34 people and injuring more than 159 in a terrorist attack on the Red Sea resort in Taba in October 2004. Nearly 2000 security forces had sealed off the mountain in central Sinai searching for Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Flayfal, a Bedouin police believe is the mastermind behind the October attacks. However, failing to find the suspect, the forces pulled out ending the siege. Authorities believe the fugitive has now taken refuge in a different spot in the rugged desert area. In the course of the pursuit, however, a policeman and a suspect were killed and four other policemen were injured in firefights. For months, security forces have been in pursuit of the suspects believed to be taking refuge in the Sinai mountains. In February, three suspected militants were killed in a shoot-out with the police. Since the October attacks, scores of suspects were rounded up and are expected to stand trial on 2 July before a state security court. Last week, Israel posted a travel caution, warning its nationals against travelling to Egypt, particularly the Sinai peninsula, saying there was an increased threat of attacks. Travel ban EGYPTIAN authorities on Wednesday prevented presidential candidate and head of Al-Ghad Party Ayman Nour from leaving the country to speak before the European parliament. Authorities said since Nour is expected to stand trial next month, a travel ban has been issued against him. Nour had planned to travel to Brussels today, Thursday, and return to Cairo on the eve of the following day, yet the office of the general prosecutor refused to grant him permission. Nour was detained in January, released in March and later charged with presenting forged documents to set up his party. The charges, argue Nour and his associates, are "baseless and politically motivated". Nour, a young lawyer, was among the reformists who met with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Cairo on Monday. His trial sparked much criticism from the US administration. Judges slam draft THE CAIRO Judges Club issued a statement on Monday criticising a new Justice Ministry attempt to amend the current law regulating the exercise of political rights, reports Mona El-Nahhas. The club said the draft law, currently being discussed by the People's Assembly, was a new governmental attempt at deceiving the public and ignoring their demands. "It's unacceptable for the government to clash with the public's will, or use legislation as a means of deception," the statement said. The judges voiced their reservations on several of the new draft's articles; first and foremost among them was the clause that stipulated that three public figures should be part of the Supreme Electoral Committee charged with supervising elections. Involving public figures threatens the committee's neutrality, the judges said. They also criticised the draft for giving the Interior Ministry a role in the electoral process. The judges were not even consulted while the draft was being prepared, they said. To make matters worse, suggestions they had submitted to the ministry in April regarding ways to guarantee free and fair elections were summarily ignored. At a general assembly in May, the judges threatened to boycott supervising this fall's presidential and parliamentary elections, if the government did not respond to their demands and give them full control over the election process. They said they would make a final decision on the matter during another general assembly scheduled to take place on 2 September. Detentions protested AROUND a thousand people demonstrated in front of Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed's downtown Cairo office on Monday against the continued detention of several pro-reform activists. Their rally was meant to coincide with an official visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The protesters -- who included members of both the Kifaya movement and the Doctors' Movement for Change -- said the authorities had promised them that four detained members of Kifaya would be released. Brotherhood refutation ON SUNDAY, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group said that 306 of its members were still in custody, and not just 37, as was announced by the prosecutor-general's office the previous day. The group demanded their immediate release. The prosecutor-general's office had said on Saturday that only 37 members of the group remained in custody from among the 500 who were detained in the aftermath of a spate of pro-reform demonstrations last month. The group, on the other hand, said that 3,000 of its members have spent some time in custody following those nation-wide protests. They said some 800, including senior group figures, had had their detention periods constantly renewed. The brotherhood, which has been banned from political activity in Egypt since 1954, counts 17 "independent" parliamentarians amongst its members. In March 2004, the group issued a list of 13 reform initiatives that, among other things, indicated its support for a parliamentary and democratic system. The document referred to the public as the source of sovereignty -- a major philosophical switch for a group that had hitherto espoused the view that God is the sole source of authority. The New-York based Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called upon Egypt to release two prominent Brotherhood figures -- Essam El-Erian and Mahmoud Ezzat -- since the state could not prove they had committed a crime. Iraq conference FOREIGN Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit took part in an international conference on Iraq in the Belgian capital of Brussels yesterday. Egypt's top diplomat told reporters that the conference was important because "maintaining Iraq's unity is more crucial now than ever." Co-hosted by the US and the European Union (EU), the conference -- attended by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, EU Council Secretary-General Javier Solana, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and around 30 Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari -- featured delegations from around 85 different nations, including Syria and Iran. The three main topics on the agenda were the Iraqi political process, economic and reconstruction challenges, and the rule of law. The conference also touched on ways the international community could support Iraq's new government as it reintegrated the country into the international community. The possibility of drafting a constitution that both Sunnis and Shiites could agree on was also discussed.
