CAIRO, May 19 (UPI) -- Egyptian authorities dealt two painful blows to the opposition casting doubt about President Hosni Mubarak's intentions to introduce long-delayed political reforms.
An Egyptian appeal court Thursday endorsed a ruling passed last December sentencing opposition leader and head of al-Ghad Party, Ayman Nour, to five years in prison on conviction of falsifying the documents needed for licensing his party by the Committee of Party Affairs.
Nour, who contested Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential elections won by Mubarak last November, has repeatedly denied the charge filed against him.
Also Thursday, a disciplinary court apprehended reformist judge Hisham Bastawisi on the charge of defaming the judiciary by alleging fraud in last year's general elections, while it acquitted his colleague Mahmoud Makki of the same charge.
The ruling against Bastawisi, who is deputy president of the court of appeal, implied that he will never be promoted to court president, the highest judicial position in Egypt.
In the meantime, Egyptian police ruthlessly crushed demonstrations in support of the two judges organized by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood Organization and the Egyptian Movement for Change, Kifaya, which calls for ending Mubarak's rule.
Hundreds of protesters were arrested, including Brotherhood official Issam Aryan.
Security sources said as many as 250 demonstrators were rounded up, while opposition reports put the number at 400.
Witnesses said plainclothes policemen beat up the protesters and chased them in side streets arresting dozens. Others were brutally prevented from reaching the court building where Bastawisi and Makki stood trial.
The developments raised big question marks about President Mubarak's intentions to introduce political reforms as he promised at the start of his fifth term in office last November.
They also placed at stake the future of Egypt's relations with the United States and European Union which denounced what they called the repression of Egyptian opposition.
Kifaya's Coordinator General Georges Issaac slammed the government's behavior as "unlimited repression and a knock out to reforms."
Issaac vowed that Kifaya, which means enough, will keep up its struggle for freedoms and step up protests despite the arrest campaigns that targeted its activists.
Muslim Brotherhood official Abdel Monem Abu Fatah blasted the government's crack down on the opposition as "an attempt by the regime to return the issue of political reforms back to square one."
Abu Fatah warned in comments made to United Press International that striking at the Muslim Brotherhood Organization "will draw in violent movements, terrorism and injustice."
"When you induce the terrorists and the bloody by giving them a strong message that you will not allow peaceful political activity, they will only resort to force, arms and blood to force the change," Abu Fatah said.
Political analyst Sherif Younes warned the Egyptian government against indulging in repressing the opposition under the pretext of recovering the prestige of the regime following the latest protest movements.
"We wonder is this is political stupidity or a government plan," he said, referring to the arrest and beating of hundreds of protesters in Cairo's streets for expressing support for the reformist judges.
Cairo-based Western diplomats underscored the harms that the Egyptian government's dealing with the opposition will have on relations with the U.S. and European Union.
"It is definite that such acts embarrass Western governments vis-a-vis their parliaments and public opinion," one diplomat told UPI on condition not to be named.
The U.S. administration strongly criticized Egypt last week for crushing demonstrations and asked it to implement promises of political reforms. However, Washington asked the Congress on Wednesday not to suspend the U.S. annual assistance of $2 billion to Egypt
The European Union also expressed deep concern on Tuesday over the arrest of a large number of demonstrators.
The Egyptian foreign ministry retorted by denouncing Europe's interference and official newspapers accused the U.S. of meddling in Egypt's internal affairs.
