Egypt rejected intervention by any foreign party in its internal affairs, just two days after the United States raised concerns over the jailing of an opposition leader in Cairo.
Egypt "upholds the value of the judiciary and rejects interference from outside in determining the direction of an investigation before the judiciary," presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said.
Awad added that the judiciary was appreciated for its "fairness and neutrality" and that "the case is criminal in nature and has no political dimensions."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Washington  Tuesday after a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit that she had raised the issue of Ayman Nur, leader of the opposition Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) party.
"And I expressed our very strong hope that there will be a resolution of this very soon." Nur, a member of parliament, was arrested at the end of last month for 45 days pending a fraud investigation. Nur has denied the allegations and said the charges were politically motivated. "I did raise our concerns, our very strong concerns, about this case," she said. "I did talk at some length about the importance of this issue to the United States, to the American administration, to the American Congress, to the American people," she said.