Mubarak’s regime, it seems, is planning to keep on trying Dr. Ayman Nour till he dies in prison.
Jailed Egypt politician questioned on new allegations
Aziz El-Kaissouni
CAIRO, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Imprisoned Egyptian politician Ayman Nour has been sent back to jail after being questioned by prosecutors on a number of new allegations, including defaming President Hosni Mubarak, his wife said on Sunday.
Gameela Ismail told Reuters Nour, 41, was also being questioned on suspicion of insulting religion and mocking God, among other charges.
Several months ago, Nour’s Ghad (Tomorrow) Party newspaper provoked an outcry for publishing a number of articles that were deemed offensive to religion.
Nour did not write the articles and publicly disavowed them, but his status as the chairman of the newspaper’s board means that he can be held legally liable.
His wife will also be questioned despite the fact that she has no official role at the newspaper, although she informally supervises its activities.
Nour, who came a distant second to Mubarak in last year’s presidential election, is serving a five-year term for filing forged papers to set up his Ghad Party in 2004. He says the charges were fabricated to drive him out of political life.
The U.S. government and human rights groups criticised the trial and sentencing of Nour, who campaigned against Mubarak on a liberal, secular platform.
Nour is scheduled to undergo cardiac catheterisation on Monday, to determine whether his heart condition will require stent implants or bypass surgery, Ismail said.
Stents are small tubes used to prop open arteries.
Nour, who is diabetic and dependent on insulin, has been bleeding from his eyelids for several days due to an overdose of anticoagulant prescribed by prison doctors in preparation for Monday’s procedure, his wife said.
He was scheduled to undergo the cardiac catheterisation last week, but was returned from hospital after being told the procedure required the personal approval of the interior minister, his wife said.
Nour’s lawyers have formally asked that he be released on medical grounds, but have received no response.
UPDATE: From Reuters:
Egypt opposition leader has heart tests under guard
CAIRO, Dec 19 – Imprisoned Egyptian politician Ayman Nour underwent heart tests under tight security and police kept his wife Gameela Ismail away from his hospital room.
An Amnesty International representative who was with Ismail outside the hospital on Monday said Ismail managed to speak to him for a few minutes only through a closed and blinded window.
Ismail later caught a glimpse of Nour from an ambulance window after police hurried him out though a back door of the Cairo hospital and started to drive him back to prison, Amnesty International’s Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui told Reuters.
“There were things that were really unnecessary. She (Ismail) just wanted to see her husband and make sure he was in good health,” said Sahraoui, who is deputy project director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Nour, who is serving a five-year jail term on fraud charges which he says were fabricated to force him out of politics, had the cardiac catheterisation procedure at Kasr el-Aini government hospital, Ismail told Reuters.
“They (police) refused to let us communicate with him. They even refused to let me in to pay the 700 pounds ($120),” said Ismail, who spent most of the day outside the hospital.
A photograph in the independent newspaper Al Masry Al Youm showed Nour, 42, lying in his hospital bed and smiling. Ismail said one of the patients in the same room took the picture.
The aim of the test was to find out whether Nour, who has a history of arterial problems, needs heart surgery or stents to hold his arteries open, she said. He has had the same procedure done several times and had arterial expansion in 2003.
Nour was the main challenger to President Hosni Mubarak in elections in September 2005, when Egypt had the first contested presidential elections in its long history.
A secular liberal, he came a distant second with about seven percent of the popular vote. Independent election monitors said irregularities were widespread.
Since his imprisonment in December last year and without his daily presence and leadership, his Ghad (Tomorrow) Party has lost much of its dynamism, political analysts say.
Nour and his colleagues say the authorities trumped up the charges against Nour because he was the most significant potential threat to a presidential bid by Mubarak’s son Gamal Mubarak, who is almost exactly the same age. Gamal and his father say they have no plan for Gamal to seek the presidency.
