By Essam Fadl
CAIRO: The Appeals Court granted opposition leader Ayman Nour a retrial in the case of fabricating Al-Ghad Party’s founders’ powers of attorney, for which he was convicted to five years in prison in 2005.
Nour will be tried before a different criminal court, not the one that issued the initial sentence.
Months after running in Egypt’s first multi-candidate presidential elections, in which he was a distant second to the then incumbent Hosni Mubarak, Nour was put on trial in what was described as political charged. The South Cairo Court found him guilty in 2005 and the verdict was ratified by the Appeals Court in 2006.
Nour considered the decision to retry him as a “declaration of innocence and honor for him”.
“The decision is another slam to the previous regime and its policies of oppression against its opponents by fabricating cases against them,” Nour told reporters on Wednesday.
The head of Al-Ghad Party told Daily News Egypt that the decision will positively affect his candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections. “Some people said that I will not be able to run in the upcoming elections and this court ruling ended these speculations.”
Having been found guilty in what is considered an honor-related crime, Nour was not eligible to run in elections, according to the law.
“Legally, the prison sentence is cancelled and I can run for president and will start my campaign from everywhere in Egypt not only in Cairo. I have to tell everyone that our next fight is with the remnants of the decaying regime,” Nour added.
Nour’s lawyer Osama Abdel-Meniem told Daily News Egypt, “The Appeals Court’s decision means legally to cancel the old court ruling of prison sentence and to be retried before another court, and we trust Nour will be found innocent.”
Nour’s supporters organized a rally from the Appeals Court to Al-Ghad Party headquarters in Talaat Harb, celebrating the verdict.
