A terrible confrontation is brewing between the judges and the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. It all started when Mohamed Mahdi Akef, the former Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide, announced plans to amend the law of the judiciary by reducing the age of retirement for judges — a move that would allow the removal of 3,500 or so judges from their jobs. Resentful of a ruling by the Cairo Appeals Court ordering the dismissal of current Prosecutor-General Talaat Abdallah and the reinstitution of former prosecutor-general Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud in his post, Akef lashed out at the judges, calling them “corrupt and corrupting”. Within days, the Wasat Party prepared a draft law for the “reorganisation” of the judiciary. According to the proposed law, the retirement age would be brought down to 60, which means that an entire generation of active judges would be out of jobs, and that new people would be brought in to fill their places. Few doubt that the new jobs will go to Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters. Soon afterward, the Muslim Brotherhood called for a million-man-march for “purging the judiciary” — thus leaving no one in doubt of its intent. The Muslim Brotherhood is determined to domesticate the judiciary by carrying out a new “massacre of the judges” along 1969 lines. The Muslim Brotherhood is not interested in the age of judges. What it wants is to control the judiciary by bringing in new appointees who are loyal to those who hired them. The Muslim Brotherhood wants to do to the judiciary the same thing it did to the executive branch, its overall aim being to control every single institution in the country. The Muslim Brotherhood is trying to create a judiciary that is not loyal to the country but to the Brotherhood itself. This plan is now clear, for the Muslim Brotherhood failed in persuading the judges to do their bidding. On the contrary, the judiciary issued several rulings that went against Brotherhood interests — such as the ruling that disbanded the People's Assembly, the ruling to bring back Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud to his former job as prosecutor-general, and the ruling to release former president Hosni Mubarak from prison in connection to one court case (he will remain in custody, however, because of other cases in which investigations are ongoing). The Muslim Brotherhood has declared war on the judges, a war that is not much different from the one they declared against various journalists and broadcasters, such as Bassem Youssef and Gaber Al-Karmouti, who have been referred to courts or summoned for investigation. Not to forget the wave of detentions of 6 April Movement members after the latter demonstrated in front of the Interior Ministry to protest its policies and the widespread chaos and lack of security in the country. It is clear that the Muslim Brotherhood has realised that it cannot bend the judges to its will. This is why it has changed its tactics, and is now heaping upon them the same accusations it had levelled against journalists and activists whom it now describes as traitors, agents, corrupt, and corrupting. One wonders: Why is the judiciary being called corrupt at this juncture? Is this not the same judiciary that supervised the presidential elections and declared Mohamed Morsi a winner? Is this not the same judiciary that supervised the earlier parliamentary elections in which the Brotherhood and the Islamist current won a majority? It is clear that the Muslim Brotherhood's management style depends on dominating every single political and state institution. And those who don't play along are routinely charged of treason and corruption. The Brotherhood's refusal to tolerate any opposition and its consistent double-dealing are not going to accomplish much. Egypt is a sovereign state and its legal institutions abide by the law and by well-established norms. Such institutions are averse to the mix of heavy-handedness and intimidation that is the hallmark of the Muslim Brotherhood's management style. The Brotherhood ways are counterproductive, for the Egyptians are in no mood to bow to intimidation. The young generation in this country is going to make the rulers listen to them, not the other way around. It would be best for the Muslim Brotherhood to rethink its ways. Instead of intimidating the judges, it should pay more attention to the needs of the nation and have some respect for the rule of the law.
The writer is secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights.
