CAIRO: Prominent opposition figure Ayman Nour today submitted a plea to Egypt's Attorney General to overturn Sunday's verdict, passed by the Cairo Court of Cassation. Nour, a likely presidential candidate and head of the liberal al-Ghad Party, had petitioned the Court of Cassation to reconsider a 2006 verdict finding him guilty of forging signatures submitted on the licensing papers for al-Ghad Party in 2005. The court on Sunday denied the appeal, essentially upholding the 2006 guilty verdict. If the verdict is not overturned, Nour will be banned from running for or holding any public office or heading any political party, assembly or syndicate until 2016. Nour and his supporters maintain that the 2005 case was trumped up by the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak to punish Nour for challenging Mubarak in the 2005 presidential elections. Nour placed second in 2005.
