Mona El-Nahhas reports on new judicial appointments On Saturday, President Hosni Mubarak appointed six prominent judges to leading judicial posts. The new appointments, made by presidential decrees, included Moqbel Shaker who will chair the Cassation Court. Shaker, former chairman of the Cairo Judges Club, will also head the Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC). On Monday, Shaker discussed with members of the SJC their plan to promote judges and the appointments of members of the general prosecution. They also discussed amendments of the judiciary law, which were endorsed by the People's Assembly last month and which strengthened the SJC's influence. Shaker pledged to meet most of the judges' demands, noting that the Cassation Court is in need of doubling the number of judges working for it to accelerate the pace of cases needing to be heard. Maher Abdel-Wahed, former prosecutor-general, was appointed to the Supreme Constitutional Court. Abdel-Wahed said the court will continue to protect the constitution. Abdel-Wahed's former assistant, Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud Abdel-Meguid, was chosen prosecutor-general. El-Sayed Nofal was appointed chairman of the State Council. Samir Abdel-Halim Badawi now chairs the Administrative Prosecution Body and Milad Seidhom is to lead the State's Cases Authority. The presidential appointments of Nofal, Badawi and Seidhom followed their election by members of the general assemblies of the judicial bodies they work for. However, in the case of the Cassation Court, the Supreme Constitutional Court and the general prosecution, the judiciary law gives the president the sole right to choose their chairmen. Judges have been repeatedly asking to first seek the approval of the SJC before appointing chairmen of the Cassation Court, Constitutional Court and the prosecutor- general. The newly amended judiciary law did not meet their demands. The board members of the Cairo Judges' Club met on Monday to assess the current situation following the new appointments. The new judicial leaders started work immediately after they took the oath before President Mubarak at the presidency on Sunday. On the same day, Mubarak awarded former chairmen of judicial bodies who reached the age of retirement state medals of the first order. Judges honoured were Fathi Khalifa, former chairman of the Cassation Court, Abdel-Rahman Azouz, former chairman of the State Council, Mahmoud El-Arousi, former chairman of the Administrative Prosecution Body, Hossam Abdel-Azim, former chairman of the State's Cases Authority, and Mamdouh Marei, former chairman of the Supreme Constitutional Court, who had been rumoured to be up for the post of justice minister.
