The judges-lawyers crisis continues and there appears to be a motive, reports Mona El-Nahhas Attempting to contain the escalating crisis between judges and lawyers, the Bar Association Council prepared a working paper with a number of recommendations to regulate the relationship between lawyers and judges. Calls for lending lawyers something akin to judicial immunity and to mandate a judge to investigate disputes between judges and lawyers topped the recommendations. The Bar Association paper was submitted to the chairman of the Supreme Judiciary Council, judge Serri Seyam, Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei and Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud. Although the three have yet to respond to the paper, Hamdi Khalifa, chairman of the Bar Association, stressed in press reports before flying to Beirut to attend meetings of the Arab Federation of Lawyers that the crisis is close to being resolved. Khalifa has been saying the same thing since the crisis first erupted earlier last month in the wake of the sentencing of two lawyers, Ihab Saeieddin and Mustafa Fattouh, to five-year jail terms each on charges of assaulting Basem Abul-Rous, a senior prosecutor in Tanta. The trial of the lawyers is scheduled to resume on Sunday before the Tanta Appeals Court, and with a growing sense of anxiety among lawyers. Islamist lawyer Montasser El-Zayat was reluctant to comment on Khalifa's paper. A majority of lawyers are dead sure the document will lead to nothing major and that the case of the two lawyers will gradually fall into oblivion. "The two lawyers will pay the price for the poor performance of the Bar Association council," leftist lawyer Ahmed Qenawi said. According to Qenawi, the council "failed completely" in tackling the case of Saeieddin and Fattouh due to a lack of communication between the council chairman and its members on one hand and between lawyers and their syndicate on the other. Protests are being taken haphazardly by lawyers, Qenawi added. Meetings held between Khalifa and senior judicial figures are shrouded in mystery. Lawyers know next to nothing about the results of such meetings or about Khalifa's plan of action. As such, lawyers have failed to adopt a united stance. Some want to calm things down while angry voices insist that protests, including work stoppages, should not stop until the demands of lawyers are met. As a group of veteran lawyers mediate to end the crisis, incidents of senior prosecutors being attacked in various provinces are being reported. Today, 15 July, lawyers who are members of the Bar Association's committee of freedom are planning a peace march to the office of the prosecutor-general to press for an investigation with Abul-Rous who is said to have instigated the attack on the two lawyers. Releasing the lawyers on bail and guaranteeing a fair trial are the demands of lawyers. Judges view the matter as an attack on the dignity of the judiciary, insisting that the entire issue is now in the hands of the Tanta court panel which will have the final say that should be respected by all. They say negotiations with lawyers aim at regulating the relationship between the two sides and should not have any effect on the trial of the convicted lawyers. Sharply criticised for further escalating the crisis, the Judges' Club is preparing a file including all lawyers' violations committed against men of the judiciary. Club chairman Ahmed El-Zend denied what was published in the independent Al-Masry Al-Yom about presenting the file to the prosecutor-general's office. "Incidents of judges coming under attack have already been submitted to the prosecutor-general in the form of individual complaints," El-Zend told Al-Ahram. The rigid stand taken by judges in the recent crisis could be lessening the public's trust in the judiciary, leading many to believe that the state is benefiting the most. This may explain why state officials have for the most part opted to act as bystanders without taking concrete steps to contain the situation. According to analysts, people who have been calling for judicial supervision over polls will now stop such demands, something which the state actually seeks.
