While its leader remains incarcerated, the Ghad Party's unity is being put to the test. Mona El-Nahhas reports "We will sacrifice our souls and blood for you," was a chant repeated countless times this week at different protests demanding the release of Ghad Party Chairman Ayman Nour. Arrested over two weeks ago on charges of forging thousands of the new party's membership applications, Nour has become a hero, perceived by his supporters as paying the price for speaking up and being politically active. His supporters, mostly members of the newborn party, said the case is politically motivated; the result of Nour's continuous calls for political and constitutional reform. The question of whether or not Nour's popularity has increased with his detention is on a lot of people's minds. The young MP was already much appreciated and backed by his downtown Bab Al-Shaareya constituency, and even other locales, for some of the services he had rendered there. The bold statements -- often aired live on TV -- that he used to make in parliament reflected what many ordinary people might have wanted to say to top officials about things that were going wrong. But while Nour always seemed to know the limits of how far he would go in confronting the government, his detention has called that into question as well. Was it the draft constitution Nour presented to the People's Assembly to replace the one currently in use? The draft called for fully democratic presidential elections within a parliamentary republic, thereby curtailing the president's substantial powers. Was it the party's bold prediction that it was planning to win more than 50 seats in the coming parliamentary elections scheduled for next November? Sources close to Nour also revealed that he intended to run for the upcoming presidential elections. That may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Although three other people had already publicly announced their intention to run, none enjoyed Nour's popularity, nor were they members of parliament with the kind of constituency he has. On Saturday, dozens of angry Ghad Party members carrying pictures of Nour protested outside Attorney-General Maher Abdel-Wahed's office for nearly two hours. At the same time, Nour's defence team was submitting a petition to Abdel-Wahed asking for his immediate release. "There is no reason for his further detention, as the investigations [seem to have] ended, and all the documents are now with the general prosecution," Nour's lawyer Mursi El-Sheikh explained to reporters and the gathering of supporters. "Abdel-Wahed promised to study the petition and release Nour after the investigations end. This may take place even before the 45 days [that Nour has been remanded in custody for] are over," El- Sheikh said, in an apparent attempt to calm the crowd down. Nour's supporters, partially relieved, vowed that they would not stop "taking action" until Nour was released. From his Tora prison cell, Nour threatened to start a hunger strike next Saturday, to protest against his continued detention. An earlier statement by the attorney-general said the accusations against Nour were of a criminal rather than political nature. "Nour is accused of forging the membership applications which he submitted to the Political Parties Committee," the statement said. Abdel-Wahed said Nour knew that the applications were forged, and that two of them even belonged to his wife, TV broadcaster Gamila Ismail, and Nour's father, lawyer Abdel-Aziz Nour. At a Nour solidarity conference held Sunday evening at the Press Syndicate, legal experts critiqued the attorney-general's statement. Prominent lawyer Adel Eid criticised the statement's timing, appearing as it did even as investigations were still ongoing. "Instead of taking a neutral stance, Abdel-Wahed's position... convicts Nour, without evidence," Eid said. Prior to the conference, Nour's wife Ismail, together with the head of the Press Syndicate's Freedom Committee, journalist Mohamed Abdel-Qoddos, stood at the head of a group of Ghad Party members chanting slogans near the entrance to the heavily guarded syndicate, calling for Nour's release and accusing the government of fabricating the case against him. "Nour has no legal responsibility to check membership applications," Eid told the gathering. "According to the political parties law, it is the Political Parties Committee which should examine the membership applications within a period of four months. In case of forgery, applicants and not their representative should be questioned." Eid also wondered why Nour would go to the trouble of forging such a huge number of applications when the law stipulates that party founders only needed to submit 50. Lawyer Amir Salem, another member of Nour's defence team, accused the state itself of forging the applications. "Ismail Zakareya, the witness who testified against Nour, was arrested last January on charges of forgery and fraud. He was released the day following Nour's arrest, after delivering his statements," Salem said. He stunned the gathering with the revelation that Zakareya had used an alias -- Diaa -- while he worked with Nour. In another development, Wahid El-Oqsori, head of the Socialist Arab Party (a relatively minor opposition party), filed a complaint this week at the Qasr Al-Nil prosecutor's office accusing Nour of forging his PhD certificate (which he received in Russia) as well as his identity card. Salem and others said the campaign against Nour mainly aimed to smear his name. "They want to destroy Nour," said a furious Salem. Ghad Party Secretary-General Mona Makram Ebeid, meanwhile, has spent much of her time angrily refuting rumours about a connection between the party and the US. "It's not a crime to have acquaintances from abroad. And as a liberal party, we should be open to the US and the West. What is all that nonsense?" she asked. On Saturday at the People's Assembly, Nour's case was being fervently debated as well. The assembly's Human Rights Committee had just reversed its earlier recommendation that Nour -- a diabetic with heart problems -- should be hospitalised to get the medical care he needs. Instead, committee head Mansour Amer now said that Nour's health was normal. Amer also denied Nour's claims (which had been included in a complaint the jailed MP sent to parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour) that he had been subjected to harsh treatment. "Nour is treated just like the rest of the prisoners, and he was not beaten while being arrested," Amer said. "A security [officer's] finger unintentionally hit Nour face, causing the bruise under his eye." Reacting to Amer's statement, independent MP Seif Rashad accused the committee of "trying to ameliorate the government's image, and hide the truth". The strong shows of support for Nour belied claims that the party was falling apart without its leader. There also appeared to be ample evidence that Nour's popularity within the party itself was unchallenged. Party member Nahed Farid called Nour "our sole leader", and said, "none of the party's top officials would dare to try to replace him." The crisis, Farid said, would only increase Al-Ghad's strength. During the Press Syndicate conference, Ismail read out a letter from Nour, calling upon party officials to abide by the decisions taken at the party's first general congress last November. One of those involved issuing the party's mouthpiece -- Al-Ghad newspaper -- with controversial journalist Ibrahim Eissa as its chief-editor. Nour warned the party against offering concessions to the government, which he said would not be of any help whatsoever. The fate of the paper, however, hung in the balance after the party's first deputy chairman, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, sent a letter to the Shura Council-affiliated Supreme Press Council the day before Al-Ghad was set to hit the newsstands, asking that the presses be stopped. Moussa's move came following his arrest at Cairo airport on 8 February, shortly after he flew in from London. After nine hours of investigations, Moussa was released, after which he sent the letter to the Supreme Press Council, inspiring rumours that he had been forced to make a deal with the government. Moussa denied those claims, arguing that he had "nothing to fear". He said, "the investigations had revolved around the forged applications case, and not financial infringements as was reported." Moussa also said the decision to speed up Al- Ghad 's appearance, rather than stick to the original 9 March launch date decided by the party's first general congress, would serve neither the party nor Nour. Moussa told party officials that he would abide by the party congress's choice of Ibrahim Eissa as the mouthpiece's chief editor. He said, however, that "Eissa should abide by the party's style of objective criticism, and avoid sensational writings," warning party members that the latter would neither be in Nour's, or the party's, interests.
