CAIRO: Administrative court rejected on Thursday opposition leader Ayman Nour s latest bid to be released from prison on medical grounds, despite his claims that his health has worsened since he was jailed.
Judge Adel Abdul Salam Gomaa, president of the court of assizes and the man who originally convicted Nour, announced his decision without giving any explanation.
But a source close to the case said the court had placed no confidence in private medical assessments presented by Ayman Nour, and based its decision on official reports, which concluded that his life was not in danger.
On May 22, an administrative court postponed a ruling on Nour, 43, an insulin-dependant diabetic who has been held for more than a year, pending a medical examination.
Nour s wife Gamila Ismail said she was cautiously optimistic of a favorable verdict.
Nothing is certain, nor does it offer enormous optimism, but this time I have brought my son to court and perhaps this time we will have good news, she said before the verdict.
Nour was jailed in December 2005 just three months after coming a distant second in the country s first ever multi-candidate presidential election, in which he mounted a daring campaign against veteran President Hosni Mubarak.
He is serving a five-year sentence for forging affidavits needed to set up his Ghad party.
In the last hearing, a judge announced that a committee of medical experts appointed by the ministry of justice would carry out further tests on Nour before giving its decision on June 12.
In February, a committee of government-appointed experts, made up of members of the medical profession and the prison authority, concluded he was fit enough to serve out his jail sentence.
But Nour appealed and has repeatedly claimed he was not receiving proper medical care in prison.
