[JURIST] The Egyptian court that in December sentenced [JURIST report] opposition leader Ayman Nour [BBC profile] to five years in prison for forging signatures to register his Al-Ghad party in last year's presidential election said Saturday that it had convicted Nour and his six co-defendants because of the danger posed by the sophistication of their forgery techniques. In a report on the ruling it asserted that Nour's denials of the charges were simply attempts to escape questions about his crimes. Nour, who was a distant runner-up in the election which returned Hosny Mubarak [official website] to power, has denied the charges and his lawyer plans to register an appeal and ask for a suspension of the verdict. The US has denounced Nour's conviction and called for his release. AP has more.