REUTERS

CAIRO: Egypt began the trial Sunday of former Prime Minister Atef Obeid and other officials accused of illegally selling an island nature reserve to a businessman close to deposed President Hosni Mubarak.
Obeid, prime minister from 1999 to 2004, was charged along with former Agriculture Minister Youssef Wali and three others with selling the island to Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem, who is being tried in absentia.
All five officials denied the charges. A second hearing was set for Nov. 19.

Following the popular uprising that toppled Mubarak in February, Salem fled to Spain, where he has been in jail for three months after being arrested on an international warrant. Obeid was arrested in July.

The island of Al-Bayadiya, covering about 36 acres, lies near the major tourist center of Luxor.
Separately, Egyptian presidential hopeful Ayman Nour Sunday failed in a bid to overturn a ruling that bars him from running for public office, imposed in 2005 when he was convicted of forging documents.
A court turned down the appeal by Nour, the leader of Al-Ghad party, who was sentenced to five years in prison due to the conviction.
Nour was released in February 2009 on health grounds.

Egyptian law does not let former convicts run for the presidency until five years after the end of their jail term.
“I am not surprised by this verdict because the ruling military council has refused to cancel laws imposing lifetime bans on convicts – it appears to be a line this regime is following,” Nour told Reuters shortly after the verdict.

He said Sunday’s verdict by the Cassation Court, Egypt’s highest court of appeal, was invalid as the judge had been a member of the Political Parties Affairs Committee, a body accused of helping former President Hosni Mubarak’s government suppress opposition groups including Al-Ghad.
“He can’t be an opponent and an arbitrator at the same time,” Nour said, pledging to press ahead with his presidential campaign.

Mubarak was overthrown in February in a popular uprising and the ruling generals have promised to oversee fair elections and a transition to civilian government.
Nour, 48, came a distant second to Mubarak in the 2005 election, Egypt’s first and only multi-candidate presidential race.

Rights groups and witnesses said the vote was marred by abuses.
Nour has said the conviction for forging party membership papers was trumped up by the state as part of a harassment campaign against his party.
“I will present new reasons to challenge the ruling and I will continue participating in political life,” Nour said.