CAIRO: After 20 years of fighting for a democratic Egypt, one man may be prevented from running for any public office – while the three-decade ruler ousted by a popular uprising earlier this year still can. The Cairo Court of Cassation today rejected an appeal by prominent opposition figure Ayman Nour to reconsider the 2006 forgery conviction that sent Nour to prison for five years. The decision will likely prevent Nour from running in upcoming presidential elections. “Today's verdict is not the end, it is the beginning,” said Nour after the decision. “Egypt will soon be liberated from all oppression.” Hamdeen Sabbahi, another presidential candidate and head of al-Karama Party, expressed his support for Nour. “It is illogical that Ayman Nour is prevented from practicing his [election] nomination right while remnants of the former regime can,” said Sabbahi. Calls to Moussa Mostafa Moussa, head of a splinter al-Ghad group that opposes Nour, were not returned. Youm7 also attempted to contact a number of lawyers and human rights groups, none of which would comment on the decision. Nour, who has consistently maintained his innocence, wants to see his case retried. On May 25, 2011, the Cairo Court of Cassation agreed to consider Nour's petition for a retrial. Shady Taha, deputy chairman of Nour's al-Ghad Party, told Youm7 that Nour provided proof to Cairo prosecutors that the case against him was concocted by Egypt's hated State Security Investigations. Taha says Nour provided testimony from two original witnesses that the case against him was contrived. One witness who recanted his testimony of the stand in 2006 died in prison in 2008. The other, according to Taha, came forward after the January uprising that toppled Egypt's former regime and recanted his entire testimony before prosecutors. Today's decision means the court rejected the grounds on which Nour called for an appeal. Nour and his supporters see the decision as evidence that elements of Egypt's former regime are still working in the country. “What we saw today is evidence that we still need change,” Taha told Youm7, adding that “the whole trial, from 2005 until now, was and is politically motivated.” At the time, inconsistencies in Nour's trial were widely criticized by groups ranging from Human Rights Watch to state-run newspaper Al-Ahram. Nour and his supporters say the entire case was created to punish Nour for daring to challenge then-President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's first multicandidate presidential elections in 2005. Nour placed second to Mubarak, receiving around 10 percent of the vote. He then served nearly four years of a five-year sentence before being released on February 19, 2009, ostensibly for health reasons. Today's decision means the original guilty charge will be upheld. Under the Egyptian penal code, a person convicted of forgery, considered a crime of dishonor, is forbidden from participating in political life for five years from the end of his sentence. Thus, Nour is forbidden from running for public office or chairing a syndicate or political party until 2016, five years after his original sentence should have ended. Nour's eldest son, Noor, told Youm7 that today's decision “reflects that those who fell victim under the Mubarak regime are still falling victim under the Supreme Council,” referencing the military council charged with Egypt's administration since February. He also said a failure to guarantee a free and fair judiciary after Egypt's January 25 Revolution influenced today's verdict. Shady Taha said, “I cannot talk about what is fair and what is right when Hosni Mubarak and Gamal Mubarak are still in Torah Prison and are legally allowed to run [for elections], but someone like Ayman Nour is not capable of holding any public position.” Neither Egypt's ousted former ruler nor his son have been convicted of any crime to date. Thus, they are legally eligible to run for any public office and could contest upcoming parliamentary elections. “Before the revolution, the only person not allowed to practice politics was Ayman Nour,” said Taha. “After the revolution, the only person not allowed to practice politics is Ayman Nour.” “That says a lot about whether this revolution succeeded,” he added. Sabbahi called on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to use its power as Egypt's ruling authority to pardon Nour. Under article 56 of the 2011 Constitutional Declaration, the council has the right to pardon or decrease a sentence or punishment. Such a pardon could allow Nour to exercise his political rights despite the conviction. According to Taha and Nour's son, the politician will continue his political activities as before. Nour also intends to submit different requests on different legal grounds in an attempt to see his case retried or the verdict overturned. “We will abolish this verdict through legal mechanisms and will not stop our campaign,” said Nour. “We will struggle until the last drop of our blood.”
