CAIRO: The Ministry of Justice is paying surprise inspection visits to legal specialists' offices nationwide, threatening to take administrative action should specialists fail to report their achievement records for July. Regular inspection teams were divided to cover 41 legal specialists' offices in all governorates, according to Bahaa Fahmy, a legal specialist from Zagazig. "They asked specialists if they are going to report their achievement record, those who said no were asked to bring in their cases for further inspections, Fahmy said. Hussein Zaki, head of legal specialists sector in the ministry, said specialists should have finalized three to five cases in July. His announcement forced some protestors to leave the sit-in and return to their offices. "The announcement came yesterday [Saturday] to prevent specialists from attending the 12th of 'the millennium days', when more than 1,000 specialists are scheduled to protest [in front of the ministry], Mohamed Tahoon, spokesperson for the protestors, told Daily News Egypt. Every Sunday and Wednesday, legal specialists from across the country join those staging the sit-in at the ministry's steps, increasing the number of protestors to over 1,000. The specialists refer to these two days as "the millennium days. The ministry refused to comment on the issue when contacted several times by Daily News Egypt. Specialists started their sit-in on July 6 demanding the cancellation of periodic book number eight that allows them to examine case files in courtrooms only. They are also calling for an amendment to Law 96/1952 as well as better pay and work conditions. The announcement sent to the specialists' offices nationwide said that the new incentive policy agreed upon during the last negotiations round between protestors and the ministry is on hold and that the old policy is still in effect. "This means that all previous negotiations were meaningless and for nothing, Tahoon said.
