CAIRO, Egypt – Two judges who challenged the legitimacy of last November’s parliamentary elections will keep their gavels and robes after a court decided yesterday to reprimand only one of them.

But the victory in the trial that inspired political dissent among a third of the country’s judges was tempered for Democrats here after the court rejected the final appeal of President Mubarak’s principal challenger in last September’s presidential election to overturn his five-year jail sentence.

The decision to reprimand Hisham Bastawisi and clear Mahmoud Mekki of charges that that the two defamed the judiciary – by questioning whether some of the judges that approved election results in the November legislature contest had committed fraud – met with harsh words after the trial from Mr. Mekki, who at the last minute decided to sit in the dock. Mr. Bastawisi, however, remained in the hospital after suffering a heart attack on Wednesday.

Down the hall, another courtroom closed the door on the last chance for freedom for al-Ghad party leader Ayman Nour, who was appealing his five-year sentence for forging signatures on the petitions that placed him on the presidential ballot.

One senior member of the party was so devastated after the ruling yesterday to reject a retrial that, when asked for comment, he said he could not find words to express his despair.

The two politically charged decisions are not likely to restore the delicate relationship between the regime and the people, which has slowly deteriorated since 2004, when a small coalition of independent opposition figures, known as Kafiya, began holding public rallies denouncing Mr. Mubarak.

Before the trials yesterday, the blocks around the courts were cordoned off by lines of riot police wielding bamboo batons and shields. Despite a warning from the Interior Ministry against any public demonstrations, about 800 members of the Muslim Brotherhood led a march through the downtown area before the trial.

Members of parliament affiliated with the Brotherhood, which until yesterday had kept a low profile on the judges’ trial, appeared around the courtroom wearing black satin sashes that read, “Representatives of the people are with the judges.”

One protesting parliamentarian, Saber abu elFotouh, told The New York Sun: “All of the Egyptian people today have chosen the path of freedom and are supporting the judges. If Democrats around the world are serious about their convictions, they should show support because the Egyptian people are not pulling back.”

The Muslim Brotherhood – an Islamist organization that has promoted Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza, and Koran-inspired law in Egypt – likely would have gained more than their 88 seats in the people’s assembly last November had the committee of judges led by Messrs. Bastawisi and Mekki succeeded in challenging some of the more questionable results from local polling stations.

But the open dissent of the 2,000 judges here in recent months has largely attracted solidarity from Egypt’s smaller secular opposition.

The stand of the Brotherhood, however, along with public statements this week from the European Union, were far stronger in condemnation of the Mubarak regime than anything from the State Department or the American Embassy.

However, one American official said that in a secret meeting last week at the White House with President Mubarak’s son, Gemal, Vice President Cheney delivered a harsh rebuke on the treatment of the judges and some 16 protesters last month who were beaten and remain detained.

For now, the rebellious judges are unlikely to follow through on their threat to refuse to hear cases before their courts. But the original push to release a formal inquiry into allegations of fraud surrounding the elections will move forward, Mr. Mekki said yesterday. He also said he was surprised by the ruling, considering he was not given a chance to speak in his defense.

The executive director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Bahey Eldin Hassan, told the Sun that he thought the decision to allow the judges to keep their jobs was a political deal. “It seems it is mainly a political ruling to help to release the pressure and anger among judges and the political community, and not to say the government was defeated,” he said.

Mr. Hassan said the decision on Mr. Nour’s appeal underscored the importance of the fight of the jurists for political independence. “Of course his first trial was criticized. There are several flaws in the first trial, which led human rights monitors to complain about its fairness. The worries about the judiciary system are applied to all of these cases, especially to this political one,” he said.

The Associated Press quoted Mr. Nour’s wife, Gameela, as saying, “This verdict proves for the 1,000th time that Mubarak and his regime are controlling the judicial, executive, and legislative authorities in Egypt – the bodies whose independence Nour was fighting for.” She added, “There is nothing we can do except to continue to struggle for reform with the rest of the national movement.”

The court’s rejection of Mr. Nour’s final appeal for a retrial makes his release from jail unlikely.