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A few months ago there were elections in Egypt. A few people made a big deal out of a speech Condi made urging free elections. Mubarak was challenged for the first time ever. But he won, of course, and now:
So what exactly has the BUsh admin. done for democracy in the ME?
The elections in Iraq will take months to tally, and there are already recriminations and secterian accusations.
The Palestinian legislative elections might be postponed again, and since Hamas seems likely to do well, they are being call into question.
This Egyptian situation noted above.
The only "bright spot" is Lebanon, and there ham handedness by the Syrians had more to do with events....
Testing Egypt, Mubarak Rival Is Sent to Jail
Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times
Supporters of Ayman Nour, Egypt's top opposition leader, after he was sentenced in Cairo to five years in prison at hard labor.
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By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: December 25, 2005
CAIRO, Dec. 24 - An Egyptian court sentenced Ayman Nour, a leading opposition figure, to five years at hard labor on Saturday after convicting him in a forgery case widely seen as a political prosecution aimed at silencing a challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's monopoly on power.
After he was sentenced, Mr. Nour chanted, "Down with Mubarak."
With diplomats from the United States, France, Norway and the European Union seated in a courtroom otherwise packed with uniformed police and state security men, a judge read out the verdict and sentence in a nearly inaudible whisper. Mr. Nour, 41, locked in a foul-smelling, filthy cage in the courtroom, began to chant, "Down with Mubarak."
Mr. Nour was convicted of having forged signatures on the petitions used in 2004 to create his own political party - charges that political analysts, diplomats, academics and writers said appeared to be little more than a fig leaf for political persecution, especially after one of the prosecution's main witnesses said he testified only after state security forces threatened his nieces.
"This verdict against Ayman Nour is a political decision and not a judicial ruling," said Amir Salem, Mr. Nour's main lawyer, as soon as it was announced. "We will appeal."
Egypt is one of the United States' closest allies in the Middle East, receiving about $2 billion a year in financial and military aid, and the White House had hoped that it would serve as a showcase for promoting democracy as a means to halt the spread of extremism. But government-sponsored violence during recent parliamentary elections and now the jailing of Mr. Nour have clearly strained relations.
The White House released a statement within hours of the verdict calling for Mr. Nour's release and saying that his conviction "calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom and the rule of law."
Mr. Nour, a parliamentary leader for 10 years, reached international prominence only after his arrest on the forgery charges in January and a decision in February by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to postpone a trip to Egypt to protest his imprisonment. When Mr. Mubarak pushed through a change in the Constitution allowing multicandidate presidential elections for the first time, Mr. Nour rode a wave of attention, saying he hoped to put the government on trial.
Inside, the courtroom was so packed with plainclothes security men that it was impossible for Mr. Nour's supporters and members of his party - El Ghad, or Tomorrow Party - to enter. Uniformed police officers made a wall in front of the bars, so that he could barely be seen.
One officer said the men in court were "relatives" of other defendants in the case, but the men kept saluting each other and one seated in the front row acknowledged that they were state security officers.
"What is happening to our country," shouted Mr. Nour's lawyer, Mr. Salem, as the police shoved their way into the courtroom. "What's all this security? What kind of law is this?"
Mr. Nour's wife, Gamila Ismail, looked dazed as she tried to fight through a cordon of police officers in the court to get near the bars where her husband would soon appear. "Any verdict should be secret," she shouted in frustration. "Just look at this room. Look outside. You know what is this verdict."
The police forced everyone into a seat and soon Mr. Nour entered the cage, dressed in the white suit of a prisoner, carrying a small Koran in his right hand, gaunt and pale after a hunger strike he started more than a week ago to protest his nearly monthlong imprisonment. The three-judge panel entered the room shortly after 9 a.m. Judge Adel Abdel Salam Gomaa - who four years ago sentenced a democracy advocate, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, to prison for defaming Egypt - barely raised his voice above a whisper as he pronounced Mr. Nour guilty and sentenced him to five years "intensive," or at hard labor. There was a moment of pandemonium as Mr. Nour began to shout, and his wife and defense lawyers jumped to their feet.
The case gained widespread attention because it came at a time when Mr. Mubarak promised a freer and more open political system - promises which have clashed with recent actions by the state, including a decision to use security forces to prevent people from voting for opposition party candidates in parliamentary elections earlier this month.
Indeed, Mr. Nour's case serves as a bookend to the latest period in Egypt's political life which began a year ago with the government allowing an opposition movement - called Kifaya, or Enough - to stage antigovernment protests in the streets, and with the first multicandidate election for president in September. Mr. Nour came in second, with 7 percent of the vote.
But the final page in this chapter saw the government revert to iron-fisted form, as security forces shot tear gas, and rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition into crowds that wanted nothing more than to vote in the parliamentary elections. More than a dozen people were killed, and there were reports of widespread fraud.
"Rubber bullets, live ammunition, excessive amounts of tear gas were used only to disperse voters and prevent them from reaching the ballot box," wrote poll monitors in a report this week by the independent group Shayfeen.com. "Hired thugs operated under the eyes of riot police forces and intimidated and injured voters under the supervision and apparent agreement with the police forces."
Government officials have said Mr. Nour created his own problems and was tried in an independent court. On Saturday, Magdy Rady, chief spokesman for the government, said he could not comment on any aspect of the case, including the decision to prosecute, because he was not familiar with the verdict.
The prosecution charged that to inflate his popularity, Mr. Nour forged 1,000 signatures on petitions used to create his party. But Mr. Nour's lawyers and his wife argue that the government destroyed the authentic petitions and replaced them with forgeries. They said that since Mr. Nour needed just 50 signatures to register his party, it made no sense that he would have forged thousands of names, including those of his wife and his father, as the prosecution charged.
Mr. Nour is not an entirely sympathetic figure, having worked within a system he later defied and over the years supporting the president when it suited his own political needs.
But his showing in the presidential election in September established him as a credible opposition leader and potential candidate for president in 2011, when Mr. Mubarak's fifth term ends. Many political analysts have said Mr. Nour could present a credible challenge if Mr. Mubarak's son, Gamal, 41, decides to run. The younger Mubarak has become a major force in the governing party.
"They are criticizing Ayman Nour because he forged certain certificates, but they don't care about forging the whole people's will in the election," Fahmy Howeidy, a writer and political analyst said referring to the parliamentary elections. "They did the same thing, even if Ayman Nour did it. But sometimes, things here work according to very personal things. Ayman Nour thought that he is the one who can compete with Gamal Mubarak in the next presidential elections. And this idea should be oppressed."
By any analysis, Egypt is a state where people routinely get around the law. People often pay police officers money to allow them to park in certain spots, for example. And so when the state decides to invoke the law against individuals, especially politically active individuals, it is always a political decision that precedes the prosecution, experts said.
"We speak about the rule of law but we don't believe in the rule of law," said Yehia el-Gamal, a law professor at Cairo University and former minister and member of Parliament who said the decision to prosecute Mr. Nour was clearly political. "We are living in the state which is personified by the president. The president is the law. The president is the ruler."
Others said Mr. Nour was the latest in a line of people, including Mr. Ibrahim and Essam el-Erian of the Muslim Brotherhood, to be crushed by the weight of the state for having crossed some arbitrary red line.
"I think they have absolute contempt for Ayman," said Aly Salem, a playwright and satirist who follows political developments closely. "A great portion of what is happening to Ayman is personal. They feel Ayman defied them."
Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times
Supporters of Ayman Nour, Egypt's top opposition leader, after he was sentenced in Cairo to five years in prison at hard labor.
*
E-Mail This
* Printer-Friendly
* Single-Page
* Reprints
* Save Article
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: December 25, 2005
CAIRO, Dec. 24 - An Egyptian court sentenced Ayman Nour, a leading opposition figure, to five years at hard labor on Saturday after convicting him in a forgery case widely seen as a political prosecution aimed at silencing a challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's monopoly on power.
After he was sentenced, Mr. Nour chanted, "Down with Mubarak."
With diplomats from the United States, France, Norway and the European Union seated in a courtroom otherwise packed with uniformed police and state security men, a judge read out the verdict and sentence in a nearly inaudible whisper. Mr. Nour, 41, locked in a foul-smelling, filthy cage in the courtroom, began to chant, "Down with Mubarak."
Mr. Nour was convicted of having forged signatures on the petitions used in 2004 to create his own political party - charges that political analysts, diplomats, academics and writers said appeared to be little more than a fig leaf for political persecution, especially after one of the prosecution's main witnesses said he testified only after state security forces threatened his nieces.
"This verdict against Ayman Nour is a political decision and not a judicial ruling," said Amir Salem, Mr. Nour's main lawyer, as soon as it was announced. "We will appeal."
Egypt is one of the United States' closest allies in the Middle East, receiving about $2 billion a year in financial and military aid, and the White House had hoped that it would serve as a showcase for promoting democracy as a means to halt the spread of extremism. But government-sponsored violence during recent parliamentary elections and now the jailing of Mr. Nour have clearly strained relations.
The White House released a statement within hours of the verdict calling for Mr. Nour's release and saying that his conviction "calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom and the rule of law."
Mr. Nour, a parliamentary leader for 10 years, reached international prominence only after his arrest on the forgery charges in January and a decision in February by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to postpone a trip to Egypt to protest his imprisonment. When Mr. Mubarak pushed through a change in the Constitution allowing multicandidate presidential elections for the first time, Mr. Nour rode a wave of attention, saying he hoped to put the government on trial.
Inside, the courtroom was so packed with plainclothes security men that it was impossible for Mr. Nour's supporters and members of his party - El Ghad, or Tomorrow Party - to enter. Uniformed police officers made a wall in front of the bars, so that he could barely be seen.
One officer said the men in court were "relatives" of other defendants in the case, but the men kept saluting each other and one seated in the front row acknowledged that they were state security officers.
"What is happening to our country," shouted Mr. Nour's lawyer, Mr. Salem, as the police shoved their way into the courtroom. "What's all this security? What kind of law is this?"
Mr. Nour's wife, Gamila Ismail, looked dazed as she tried to fight through a cordon of police officers in the court to get near the bars where her husband would soon appear. "Any verdict should be secret," she shouted in frustration. "Just look at this room. Look outside. You know what is this verdict."
The police forced everyone into a seat and soon Mr. Nour entered the cage, dressed in the white suit of a prisoner, carrying a small Koran in his right hand, gaunt and pale after a hunger strike he started more than a week ago to protest his nearly monthlong imprisonment. The three-judge panel entered the room shortly after 9 a.m. Judge Adel Abdel Salam Gomaa - who four years ago sentenced a democracy advocate, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, to prison for defaming Egypt - barely raised his voice above a whisper as he pronounced Mr. Nour guilty and sentenced him to five years "intensive," or at hard labor. There was a moment of pandemonium as Mr. Nour began to shout, and his wife and defense lawyers jumped to their feet.
The case gained widespread attention because it came at a time when Mr. Mubarak promised a freer and more open political system - promises which have clashed with recent actions by the state, including a decision to use security forces to prevent people from voting for opposition party candidates in parliamentary elections earlier this month.
Indeed, Mr. Nour's case serves as a bookend to the latest period in Egypt's political life which began a year ago with the government allowing an opposition movement - called Kifaya, or Enough - to stage antigovernment protests in the streets, and with the first multicandidate election for president in September. Mr. Nour came in second, with 7 percent of the vote.
But the final page in this chapter saw the government revert to iron-fisted form, as security forces shot tear gas, and rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition into crowds that wanted nothing more than to vote in the parliamentary elections. More than a dozen people were killed, and there were reports of widespread fraud.
"Rubber bullets, live ammunition, excessive amounts of tear gas were used only to disperse voters and prevent them from reaching the ballot box," wrote poll monitors in a report this week by the independent group Shayfeen.com. "Hired thugs operated under the eyes of riot police forces and intimidated and injured voters under the supervision and apparent agreement with the police forces."
Government officials have said Mr. Nour created his own problems and was tried in an independent court. On Saturday, Magdy Rady, chief spokesman for the government, said he could not comment on any aspect of the case, including the decision to prosecute, because he was not familiar with the verdict.
The prosecution charged that to inflate his popularity, Mr. Nour forged 1,000 signatures on petitions used to create his party. But Mr. Nour's lawyers and his wife argue that the government destroyed the authentic petitions and replaced them with forgeries. They said that since Mr. Nour needed just 50 signatures to register his party, it made no sense that he would have forged thousands of names, including those of his wife and his father, as the prosecution charged.
Mr. Nour is not an entirely sympathetic figure, having worked within a system he later defied and over the years supporting the president when it suited his own political needs.
But his showing in the presidential election in September established him as a credible opposition leader and potential candidate for president in 2011, when Mr. Mubarak's fifth term ends. Many political analysts have said Mr. Nour could present a credible challenge if Mr. Mubarak's son, Gamal, 41, decides to run. The younger Mubarak has become a major force in the governing party.
"They are criticizing Ayman Nour because he forged certain certificates, but they don't care about forging the whole people's will in the election," Fahmy Howeidy, a writer and political analyst said referring to the parliamentary elections. "They did the same thing, even if Ayman Nour did it. But sometimes, things here work according to very personal things. Ayman Nour thought that he is the one who can compete with Gamal Mubarak in the next presidential elections. And this idea should be oppressed."
By any analysis, Egypt is a state where people routinely get around the law. People often pay police officers money to allow them to park in certain spots, for example. And so when the state decides to invoke the law against individuals, especially politically active individuals, it is always a political decision that precedes the prosecution, experts said.
"We speak about the rule of law but we don't believe in the rule of law," said Yehia el-Gamal, a law professor at Cairo University and former minister and member of Parliament who said the decision to prosecute Mr. Nour was clearly political. "We are living in the state which is personified by the president. The president is the law. The president is the ruler."
Others said Mr. Nour was the latest in a line of people, including Mr. Ibrahim and Essam el-Erian of the Muslim Brotherhood, to be crushed by the weight of the state for having crossed some arbitrary red line.
"I think they have absolute contempt for Ayman," said Aly Salem, a playwright and satirist who follows political developments closely. "A great portion of what is happening to Ayman is personal. They feel Ayman defied them."
So what exactly has the BUsh admin. done for democracy in the ME?
The elections in Iraq will take months to tally, and there are already recriminations and secterian accusations.
The Palestinian legislative elections might be postponed again, and since Hamas seems likely to do well, they are being call into question.
This Egyptian situation noted above.
The only "bright spot" is Lebanon, and there ham handedness by the Syrians had more to do with events....
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