The independent Cairo-based Judges Club teamed up on Tuesday to celebrate the decision of the Appeals Court to dismiss prosecutor-general Talaat Abdallah. Ahmed Al-Zind, chairman of the club, said the court's decision “is a big victory for Egypt's judicial community”. Al-Zind added that the court's decision, which was upheld by the Court of Cassation — Egypt's highest judicial authority — is final and would be implemented “very soon”. Al-Zind said he expects that Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud would be officially re-instated as prosecutor-general on Wednesday or Thursday “because the Supreme Judicial Council [SJC] cannot reject implementing the court's final order”. No sooner had the court's decision been announced on Tuesday than Abdallah decided to resign. Mustafa Dewidar, the prosecution-general's spokesman, said, “Abdallah's deputy Hassan Yassin will hold the top position until the SJC convenes to issue an official appointment.” Dewidar added, “Mahmoud submitted his resignation several days ago and that he would be back to his job as a judge.” Al-Zind, however, said “as soon as Abdel-Meguid gets the implementation order from the Court of Cassation, he will be re-instated as prosecutor-general.” Joining forces with Al-Zind in a press conference on Tuesday, Abdel-Meguid stressed that he would be back to his job as prosecutor-general very soon. “From the beginning, I decided to resort to legal and constitutional tools to confront aggression against me,” said Mahmoud. Mahmoud was dismissed by Islamist President Mohamed Morsi from his post in November last year after he faced accusations from Muslim Brotherhood officials that he was helping who they claim were corrupt officials of the former Hosni Mubarak regime not to face justice. Brotherhood officials exerted pressure on Morsi to dismiss him. In reaction, Mahmoud filed an appeal against Morsi's decision until a lower court decided in March to reverse Morsi's 2012 November decision to appoint Abdallah via a controversial constitutional declaration. The court said Morsi had acted beyond his mandate when appointing Abdallah to the post. In the words of the court's order “the constitutional declaration, issued by Morsi on 22 November 2012 represented a stark deviation and misuse of power because Morsi was not constitutionally authorised to issue such a declaration.” The court explained that “Morsi's declaration was not put up to a national referendum in order to gain the power of the will of the people or become a valid constitutional tool.” The court also argued that “Morsi's declaration was not aimed at achieving public interest and the fact that it was revoked after a new constitution was passed does not make it immune to judicial scrutiny.” On Tuesday, judges criticised the appointment of Hassan as a temporary prosecutor-general until a new one is appointed. Abdallah Fathi, a leading member of the Judges Club, said “most of Abdallah's aides such as Yassin and Dewidar belong to the so-called ‘judges for the sake of Egypt' which belong to the Muslim Brotherhood — the group from which Morsi hails.” Fathi said “the re-instatement of Mahmoud as prosecutor-general sets a democratic precedent that helps immunise judicial authority to intervention by the president of the republic.” The dismissal of Mahmoud last year left judicial authority in conflict with Morsi. The authority, led by the Judges Club, accused Morsi of misusing power in a bid to manipulate the judiciary and monopolise power. Fathi said “Morsi and his Brotherhood officials resorted to the false justification that the judicial authority is loyal to the Mubarak regime, but this has never intimidated independent judges from standing up to his autocratic practices.” Fathi argued that “Morsi, instead of respecting constitutional principles the top of which is preserving the independence of the judiciary, opted for obstinacy and stubbornness which helped ignite massive protests against his regime.” Fathi also accused Morsi of exploiting Abdallah to put his critics and leaders of revolutionary movements in jail. “The best example that Abdallah was appointed to serve Morsi and his Brotherhood came last Wednesday when he delivered a more than two-hour speech in which he accused judges of rigging the parliamentary election in 2005,” said Fathi, adding that “just a few hours after Morsi's speech, Abdallah announced that he would open an investigation into the 2005 election.” Some informed sources suggest Abdallah could face an investigation on charges of exploiting his post to help the president launch a series of “aggressions” against the judiciary and helping Morsi tighten his grip on power in violation of the principles of the 25 January Revolution.
