Judges and lawyers remain at loggerheads after two lawyers accused of attacking a Tanta prosecutor are denied bail, reports Reem Leila On 20 June Tanta Court of Appeals postponed the retrial of two lawyers -- Ehab Saadeddin and Mustafa Fattouh -- accused of assaulting prosecution official Bassem Abul-Rous. The two defendants were remanded in custody until the retrial, set for 4 July. The ruling provoked angry reactions among lawyers present at the courthouse, who had expected their colleagues to be released on bail. After the decision was announced clashes occurred inside and outside the courtroom. More than 1,000 lawyers demonstrated in front of the Tanta court in support of their colleagues and vowed to file a complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Council over the issue. During the demonstration lawyers renewed their request to President Hosni Mubarak to intervene to end the crisis. President Hosni Mubarak hopes during his meeting with the NDP Parliamentary Body Shura Council members that, lawyers and judges would resort to reason, wisdom, rule of law to end row as soon as possible. Meanwhile, lawyers all over the country, who have announced they will be on strike until the retrial, began collecting signatures to press for a motion of no-confidence in the head of the Bar Association Hamdi Khalifa after he failed to secure the release of Saadeddin and Fattouh. In response, Khalifa has called an emergency meeting for Tuesday to be attended by representatives from provincial syndicate branches. Khalifa argues that it is common procedure for the court to postpone a retrial in order to study the case thoroughly and allow the defence time to prepare its case. What came as a shock in the ruling, says Khalifa, is that Fattouh and Saadeddin had already submitted a written apology to the Prosecutor-General Mahmoud Abdel-Meguid. "We were told that the case would be postponed and the defendants released on bail. That they remain in detention is the cause of the anger lawyers now feel." Galal Shalabi, head of Gharbiya governorate's Bar Association, told the press that he knew nothing of the written apology, claiming that the lawyers must have been pressured to write it. Mahmoud El-Khodeiri, a former head of the Court of Cassation, believes that the crisis could have been defused by releasing the lawyers. Prior to the court ruling, Khalifa had announced that the conflict between judges and lawyers would soon be resolved. "We demanded a fair trial for both lawyers and that they be released on bail but the court did not respond to our request that the defendants be released." People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour told the parliamentary session which convened on 16 June that the stand-off between judges and lawyers would soon be over. That now looks an over optimistic prognosis, with lawyers in several governorates, including Gharbiya, Beni Sweif, Kafr El-Sheikh, Fayoum, Damietta, Port Said, Daqahliya, Menoufiya, Qena and Minya resuming their strikes and reiterating their refusal to pay mandatory judicial fees. Serri Siam, vice-head of the Judges Supreme Council (JSC), has requested judges refrain from commenting on recent developments. In early June, Saadeddin and Fattouh were found guilty of hitting Abul-Rous and sentenced to five years in jail following a one-day trial. The two lawyers later stated they had been attacked by the prosecutor first.
