The runner-up in Egypt's presidential election, Ayman Nur, asked for the judges in his trial to be replaced Monday, complaining they were conducting the proceedings in a way that humiliated him. "Prison was better than this trial," Nur told the three judges in the Cairo court where he is standing trial with five other defendants on charges of forging signatures to register his Al Ghad Party last year. Early this year Nur was detained for six weeks, a move that drew protests from the US State Department. A populist politician, he is regarded as the foremost critic of the Mubarak government inside Egypt's parliament. Monday was the first time Nur had been allowed to leave the caged dock and stand before the judges since the trial began in June. Wearing a dark blue suit and striped tie, he complained of the court's questioning whether he was the son of his father and the presence of state security officials who take notes of the trial. "Why are they taking notes?" he asked. "It's very humiliating," Nur said of the trial. "This is more than I can take." A lawyer himself, Nur said: "I have never before requested the removal of a panel of judges." But defence lawyers for two other accused told the judges they wanted them to remain.
Presiding Judge Abdel Salam Gomaa adjourned the proceedings for nearly three hours, and then returned to adjourn the trial to Tuesday without comment. After the judges had left, Nur told the Associated Press he would not attend Tuesday's session, but go instead to parliament for the swearing-in of President Hosni Mubarak.