Judges have been enraged by comments made by the justice minister questioning their competence, reports Mona El-Nahhas Minister of Justice Mamdouh Marei criticised the performance of the majority of judges last Thursday, telling the Shura Council's Legislative Committee that out of 2,000 judges only "200 could be described as efficient". Marei went on to suggest that first degree courts were in desperate need of a radical makeover. His comments have outraged judges and deepened the crisis between the judiciary and the ministry. The judges weren't placated when Marei's assistant, Osama Atawaya, issued a veiled apology, insisting that his boss's comments had been misinterpreted. "The minister was only criticising the length of time it takes for litigation to be settled," said Atawaya. In front of the People's Assembly Legislative Committee on Sunday, Marei denied that a rift existed between the Ministry of Justice and judges. "What is published in newspapers is untrue," he claimed. "The judiciary is one family and differences in opinion do not mean that there is a war." The Cairo Judges' Club has asked Shura Council Speaker Safwat El-Sherif for a copy of the Legislative Committee's minutes so that it can assess the minister's statements and prepare its response. Meanwhile, on Monday, Zakaria Abdel-Aziz, chairman of the Cairo Judges' Club, filed a complaint against the minister with the Higher Judicial Council, requesting punitive measures against Marei. Complaints have also been filed with the president's office and the cabinet office, and during a heated meeting on Saturday evening Alexandria Judges' Club demanded the minister be sacked. "You have exceeded your prerogatives and displayed that you are incompetent," Mahmoud El-Khodeiri, chairman of the Alexandria Judges Club, wrote in an article addressed to Marei published on Sunday in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom. Judges from the provinces have also joined the fray. "Following the irresponsible statements made by Marei, we have receive hundreds of phone calls and complaints from judges throughout Egypt," says Ahmed Saber, a member of the board of the Cairo Judges' Club. The Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession condemned Marei's comments in a statement issued on Monday as "a flagrant attempt on the part of the executive authority to interfere in the judicial affairs". Reformist judge Ahmed Mekki agrees with Marei's complaints about the deteriorating standards of first-degree courts. It is the executive, though, says Mekki, that is to blame. "Judges have asked repeatedly for first-degree courts to be devolved from the Justice Ministry, an essential prerequisite to upgrading their performance," says Mekki. If there is any corruption among judges, says Mekki's colleague Hisham Bastawisi, it is the executive authority that is to blame: "when he was head of the Justice Ministry's judicial inspection department, Marei ordered the heads of first-degree courts' to inform the ministry of any lawsuit with a political dimension before the case could be heard or a ruling given", Bastawisi told a conference held earlier this week to discuss the status of the judiciary in Arab countries. Many judges believe this latest round of provocation is an attempt to divert them from pressing ahead with their campaign for reforms. Judges have been demanding greater independence since 2004. More recently they have come out in opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment that seeks to minimise their role in supervising elections.
