Egypt's lawyers and judges can't bury the hatchet and the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar inserts religion in politics' way. Doaa El-Bey and Rasha Saad feel the heat The standoff between judges and lawyers continued to occupy the front pages. Hopes for a breakthrough were dashed this week when the Court of Appeals postponed the case of two lawyers, convicted of assaulting a senior prosecutor, until 18 July. Al-Masry Al-Yom wrote 'Justice strife: the show is still on until 18 July'. Al--Ahram read 'Confrontation between lawyers and security', and Al-Wafd headlined 'Differences escalate between judges and lawyers during the appeal'. Salah Montasser wrote that the strike by lawyers had lasted so long that it lost its meaning especially that no one knows what they want exactly. It's true that two lawyers were tried using hurried procedures, but so what? They had a motive and there were witnesses. Lawyers are like doctors, engineers, journalists and any other profession who could suffer from an unfair judgement which can be revoked by the Court of Cassation. Besides, who has ever heard of a strike conducted by doctors because of a sentence passed against one of them? The lawyers' strike has harmed the interests of citizens and made lawyers reluctant to help those who need urgent help. So the question is: what do lawyers want? Do they want to overturn a ruling by ways other than the law? Can any reasonable person endorse such a demand even if the ruling was unjust? "The mistake the lawyers made is that instead of resorting to the law they fell under the influence of chaos and the power of strikes for which they did not have a legitimate demand that society can accept. That is why the strike has taken so long until it lost all meaning," Montasser wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram. Ali El-Sayed focussed on the role of Minister of Justice Mamdouh Marei in the crisis. He wrote that Marei was absent at the time when he was supposed to be present because the crisis does not concern only judges or lawyers or both, but shakes the foundations of society and shackles the pillars of the state and the regime. Thus, El-Sayed added, it is necessary to determine the role of the minister of justice and whether the term "justice" includes under its umbrella whoever works for justice, including experts, judges and lawyers. However, even if lawyers are not subordinate to Marei, they are certainly subordinate to justice for which the minister should fight for. The minister may claim that he does not want to interfere so as not to be seen as being biased to judges at the lawyers' expense, or because he wants to preserve judicial independence. Some may think that the minister is doing the right thing, that it is better to keep the executive authority away from the judiciary, which is true if that what was already happening. But the executive authority is exerting every effort to stifle justice and abolish the law, El-Sayed wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir surprised Egypt by his announcement that Halayeb is Sudanese, not Egyptian territory, and that he would soon discuss the problem with Cairo. Mohamed Amin wondered what the motives were behind Al-Bashir's announcement. He raised a few questions: what is going on between Egypt and its neighbours from the north and the south? Why have our relations so deteriorated? What happened with President Al-Assad, Hamad bin Khalifa, Ismail Haniyah and Hamas? And where is our foreign policy going? "Is there a border problem with Sudan or is there a bigger crisis? And what's the reason behind the sudden change? What is the message Al-Bashir wants to deliver to our political leadership by opening a case that had been closed?" Amin asked in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. Al-Bashir knows, Amin explained, that Halayeb is Egyptian and that it is located north of latitude 22 which is the line dividing the Egyptian and Sudanese borders. He also knows that this issue was fully resolved and that the citizens of Halayeb have Egyptian nationality. The writer ascribed reopening the issue to either Al-Bashir's agreement with the rest of the Nile Basin countries against Egypt, or as being attempts to cover up for his crimes in the south. The decision to try the two policemen who allegedly detained and tortured Khaled Said, apparently leading to his death, was widely welcomed. However, Ibrahim Nafei wrote that Egypt could have avoided all the popular anger and international condemnation had officials dealt with the perpetrators quickly and with transparency. "Had the officials launched an immediate investigation, followed by a thorough review of the information and the facts and then accorded suitable punishment, Egypt would have been spared this widespread campaign launched against it via the Internet," Nafei wrote in Al-Ahram. The results of the high school final exam or thanaweya amma, which is a cause of worry for many families, are expected next week. Nabil Atta wrote that the thanaweya amma is a catastrophe in every household. "The life of 80 million people stops for nearly a month every year during the exams. And the end result is that thousands of students cram the admissions office while their parents pray they find a suitable college," Atta wrote in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yom. Although the thanaweya amma is supposed to develop scientific, educational, economic and social standards of students, it is one of the causes of a gradual drop in the standards of Egyptian education since the 1960s. Atta suggested two things to save education: either annul the thanaweya amma altogether and make students choose the subjects that they want to study after the end of the preparatory stage; or review the educational experience in Egypt since Mohamed Ali and link it to education in the West. Whichever option the minister chooses, the most pressing matter is to find an immediate solution to the thanaweya amma catastrophe, Atta summed up. Raga El-Nemr wrote about the numerous ads for Ramadan programmes on satellite channels. That ad campaign has started, El-Nemr said, even before the advent of Ragab, the month that precedes Ramadan, as if it were not the month of fasting and worship, but of TV serials and comedy shows. She questioned the possibility of changing the kinds of programmes aired in Ramadan, mainly the soaps that tackle crime, drugs and polygamy and other controversial issues. But El-Nemr concluded in the official daily Al-Akhbar that it was impossible so long as producers make a lot of money from commercials and viewers continue watching.
