Judges meet today to discuss their options following the cabinet's referral of the government's draft judicial law to parliament, reports Mona El-Nahhas The cabinet yesterday approved the new judiciary draft law prepared by the Ministry of Justice. It will now be referred to the Shura Council, and then to the People's Assembly for final endorsement. The cabinet approved the draft without consulting judges who have been unsuccessfully demanding they be allowed to examine the proposed law for weeks now. Cabinet approval followed the failure of the Cairo Judges' Club to secure a copy of the draft in negotiations with senior government officials. Judges now fear that the law -- which they say fails to guarantee judicial independence -- will automatically pass onto the statute books. The board of the Cairo Judges' Club hastily convened a meeting for today in which to consider their options. A sit-in is due to start at the headquarters of the Cairo Judges' Club tomorrow and at the Alexandria Judges' Club on Friday. The board is also expected to set a date for the general assembly which was first scheduled for 30 June, at which a motion calling for a general work stoppage is expected to be put to the vote. The escalation of resistance to the draft law follows a week in which the judges appeared to have adopted a policy of wait and see. During a meeting held on Monday evening, members of the Judges' Club board agreed to delay any plans to escalate their campaign until it was clear how the cabinet would respond to their demands. "If the cabinet takes our demands on board before referring the draft law to the Shura Council then judges will be grateful. But if it insists on ignoring the judges' wishes and passes the draft against their will, we will consider this a hostile act and act accordingly," judge Ahmed Mekki, deputy chief justice of the Cassation Court, told Al-Ahram Weekly on Monday. Following the Monday meeting a telegram was sent to President Hosni Mubarak reiterating the requests made by letter last week and urging him to ensure that judicial independence receives appropriate guarantees. "We cannot imagine the president will allow the draft to be passed without taking judges' demands into account," the letter had said. Delivered a day before the 7 June meeting of the cabinet which referred the draft to an affiliate legislative committee, the judges were optimistic that their demands were being heeded, viewing the referral as a positive sign. They had expected the cabinet would respond to judges' demands before referring the draft to parliament. Those hopes were dashed on Monday when cabinet spokesman Magdi Radi said the cabinet would approve the judiciary draft law during its regular Wednesday meeting and refer it to parliament. While Radi insisted that the legislative committee had made several suggestions aimed at guaranteeing independence for the judiciary, judges say the government's draft "distorts that prepared by the Cairo Judges' Club and which aimed at liberating the judiciary from executive control". While the state-drafted law does include provisions for budgetary independence from the Ministry of Justice, this is the only demand of the judges that is met. Under the draft law the Justice Ministry will continue to assess the performance of judges, which means that the executive retains control over promotion and demotion. The judges had insisted that the ministry's supervisory role be allocated to the Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC), but only after it had been reformed and its government-appointed members replaced by elected ones. Under the new draft law the composition of the SJC remains unchanged, while the prosecutor-general and members of the prosecution remain subject to the supervision of the Justice Ministry.
