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Wife doubts Egypt Nour to win early jail release

The wife of jailed Egyptian opposition politician Ayman Nour said she doubted he would leave jail next summer as previously expected and had scant hope a new US administration in Washington would press his case

Gameela Ismail, speaking two weeks after a daylight arson attack gutted downtown offices used by Nour's liberal Ghad party, added that she believed Washington did not want to risk good relations with Cairo to support Nour or democracy in Egypt.

"The opposition in Egypt doesn't mean anything (to Washington). Democracy in Egypt doesn't make any difference if you compare the priorities of the US administration in the area to us," she told Reuters.
"I hope that the equation will change. I hope. But when and how I don't know. I am not optimistic," she added.
Nour, the main challenger to the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's first multi-candidate Egypt's presidential election in 2005, was jailed on fraud charges shortly after the vote. He says the charges were fabricated to block him from politics.
The Bush administration says it raises the Nour case at every high-level meeting with the Egyptian government. But diplomatic and legal efforts have so far failed to get Nour released from jail.
It has been widely expected in Egypt that Nour would go free in the summer after serving three quarters of his five-year jail term, as is common practice. But Ismail feared authorities would use a "good behaviour" clause to block his release.
"I don't think he is going to be released," she said. "'Well-behaved' to them is to shut up and not keep complaining."
Nour has been quoted in Egypt's al-Dustour newspaper as saying he expected an early release.
Workers clad in traditional robes hauled sacks of charred debris from Nour's gutted downtown office and Ismail accused the Egyptian government of giving thugs a green light to carry out the destruction.
Security sources said the fire broke out on Nov. 6 after a pro-government splinter group of Nour's Ghad party tried to seize the office. Interior ministry officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
"This regime is so brutal and so heartless. They go ahead endlessly if they want to destroy someone. They don't have a ceiling to stop at. And it was very clear that they (the thugs) have directions and clearance from a high political figure."
"They wanted us dead," she said. "To have us dead physically or have us dead psychologically."
Both sides blamed each other for the fire. Nour's Ghad said pro-government rivals set the door of the building alight and the fire spread.
Photographs seen by Reuters showed crowds outside the building trying to break in with a crowbar and wooden beam, and setting the door aflame.
The anti-Nour Ghad splinter group, however, said Nour's supporters burned down their own office by mistake while trying to throw fire bombs at them in the street below.
Ismail said prosecutors were now treating her as a suspect in the fire, and she expected to be formally charged on accusations including arson and running an illegal organisation.
Analysts say the government has wanted Nour out of politics to pave the way for Mubarak's son Gamal to eventually succeed his father as president. The elder Mubarak has been at Egypt's helm for over a quarter century.
EGYPT NEWS