Mubarak Rival Loses Freedom Bid

During the presidential vote, members of Mubarak's National Democratic Party openly recruited voters at polling places. During the parliamentary rounds, police kept voters away from several polling stations and killed 11 people who tried to reach the ballot boxes. There has been no judicial inquiry into the deaths.

Supporters of Bastawisi and Mekky viewed them as representing a possible focal point of opposition to Mubarak's almost absolute political authority. As groups of other judges entered the courthouse street, which was ringed by riot police, sympathizers in adjacent buildings that house associations of lawyers and journalists shouted, "You are heroes" and "Judges fear nothing but God."

An Interior Ministry statement said protesters were "chanting hostile slogans" and creating "unrest and chaos." One man was arrested for wearing a belt bearing small fireworks, the statement said.

Police detained 240 members of the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday, including one of its leaders, Essam al-Erian, Interior Ministry officials said. At least 14 members of Kifaya, a coalition of political and professional groups that have spearheaded anti-Mubarak rallies, were also arrested. "People are moving, but it will take a long time," said Mohammad Saad al-Katatni, head of the Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc.

Protesters accused the United States of being soft on Mubarak. Last week, a day after Cairo police beat scores of demonstrators during a march in support of the judges, Gamal Mubarak, the president's son, secretly visited the White House. He was greeted by President Bush and met with Vice President Cheney, national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The meeting became public only because a reporter for al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite television news channel, observed Mubarak entering the White House.

Many Egyptian observers suspect that Hosni Mubarak wants his son to succeed him. Gamal Mubarak holds a key position in the ruling party in charge of setting government policy.

On Wednesday, C. David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, testified before a House International Relations subcommittee that Egypt is "a cornerstone of our foreign policy in the Middle East."

He called Mubarak's decision to hold multi-candidate presidential elections "a major step forward" and expressed opposition to calls from some members of Congress to use Washington's annual $2 billion in aid to Egypt as a lever to press reform. Paraphrasing Rice, he said, "We strongly believe that U.S. aid to Egypt should continue." He repeated that "the timing is not right" for free trade talks between Egypt and the United States, which were suspended after Nour was jailed.

He reiterated the administration's "deep disappointment" with the conduct of Egypt's parliamentary elections, as well as the original sentencing of Nour last year, the postponement of this year's scheduled municipal elections, extension of emergency laws that authorize open-ended detentions without trial, prosecution of "whistle-blower judges," violence against demonstrators and roundups of democracy activists.

But he also listed strategic benefits Egypt provides the United States, suggesting these trumped any dramatic moves to press for political reform. Among the advantages cited were Egypt's backing for U.S. efforts at the International Atomic Energy Agency against Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program and pressure on the Hamas-led Palestinian government to renounce violence against Israel.

Staff writer Glenn Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.