Judges trial resumes THE TRIAL of two reformist judges Mahmoud Mekki and Hesham Bastawisi will resume today at the Cassation Court, reports Mona El-Nahhas. Mekki and Bastawisi are on trial following a decree passed last month by Justice Minister Mahmoud Abul-Leil. The two judges, who are deputies of the chief justice of the Cassation Court, are charged with violating judicial rules by talking to the media about political issues and with harming the image of the judiciary by accusing fellow judges of taking part in rigging last year's parliamentary elections. The two were accused of leaking to the press a blacklist including the initials of names of judges suspected of rigging. Many expect the trial will lead to the dismissal of the two judges. Abul-Leil's decree was contested before Cairo Criminal Court which on Sunday decided to delay hearing the appeal until 28 May. Showing support with Mekki and Bastawisi, judges are to gather today at the Cassation Court's library to decide the next steps they will take after negotiations with the state to end the current judiciary crisis reached deadlock. Judges were asked to offer an apology to the state-appointed Supreme Judiciary Council for their pervious statements about electoral fraud which they claim marred last year's parliamentary polls. Judges were also asked to end the sit-in strike which they started three weeks ago at the headquarters of their club to protest against the trial, if they want the case against the two judges to be dropped. In a statement issued on Sunday, the Judges Club denied the existence of any secret deals with the state, asserting that its sit-in will continue until the state responds to the their demands. Endorsing the draft amending the current judiciary law prepared by judges, without introducing any changes to any of its articles, tops the judges' demands. A conference discussing the new judiciary law and hosting intellectuals and prominent politicians is scheduled for 17 May. Judges also decided that their symbolic sit- in, scheduled to be staged on 25 May in front of the Supreme Judiciary House, will be held on the appointed date. The sit-in will mark the first anniversary of the referendum on the amendment of Article 76 of the constitution. The Judges' Club last year issued a report accusing the state and the police of forging the referendum results. Street assembly HUNDREDS of engineers threatened to hold their next general assembly in the street if the state banned them from convening at the headquarters of their syndicate, reports Mona El - Nahhas. The assembly meeting date of 19 May was announced during a heated general assembly held in February at Nasr City's Conference Hall. Recommendations made then by the assembly -- the first to be held since the syndicate was placed under judicial sequestration in 1996 -- were ignored by Ahmed Moharram, appointed by the court to take over the syndicate's affairs during the sequestration period. Moharram has not yet taken any measures necessary to hold the coming assembly. He has yet to officially call for the holding of the assembly nor has he chosen the venue which will accommodate 300,000 engineers, all members of the general assembly. The next assembly is expected to set a date for elections. During February's assembly, engineers had called upon Hanaa El-Mansi, head of the judicial committee charged with supervising professional syndicate elections, to announce a date for staging elections within three months starting June. In press reports published this week, El-Mansi said it will take his committee another three months to examine all voters lists, in which case elections cannot be staged at the time defined by February's assembly. Omar Abdallah, of the anti-sequestration group, revealed the engineers' intention to sue El-Mansi for deliberately delaying the holding of elections. EU clarification EUROPEAN Union (EU) Commissioner for External Relations and Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner ended a two-day visit to Cairo and Alexandria, reports Magda El-Ghitany. Ferrero visited the Anna Lindh Foundation for Dialogue between Cultures, established in 2004 by the 35 member states of the Barcelona Declaration, to boost their cooperation in cultural and social domains. She also toured the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. During the visit, Ferrero delivered an address on the importance of inter-cultural dialogue among cultures, describing the Danish cartoon crisis as a demonstration of the "clash of ignorance" and the lack of mutual knowledge about the "other". In Cairo, Ferrero met President Hosni Mubarak, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and Secretary-General of the National Human Rights Council Boutros Ghali. In a joint press conference with Abul-Gheit, Ferrero dismissed reports about European intentions to freeze humanitarian aid to the Palestinians following Hamas's rise to power. "The [EU] has already paid over half of its aid for the entire year to the Palestinians. However, what we have done is freeze all funds that would directly go to the Palestinian Authority, [Hamas]." The reason, the EU commissioner said, is that "Hamas is still on the [EU] list of terrorist organisations and still has not recognised the EU's important principles." Both the US and the EU insist that Hamas must renounce violence, recognise Israel's right to exist and accept earlier agreements by the Palestinian Authority such as Oslo and the roadmap. "The European Union does not want Hamas to fail but wants it to change instead," Ferrero insisted. On Iran, she said Europe prefers a "diplomatic solution to end the Iranian nuclear issue". On a bilateral level, Ferrero discussed with Mubarak and Abul-Gheit the future of Egypt's relationship with the EU in light of the EU's Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan (ENP) due to start in 2007. "The EU recognises Egypt as a much-valued key player in the region," Ferrero said, adding that the EU is keen to ensure that the ENP will "bring the EU and Egypt together in a more comprehensive partnership which will ultimately result in boosting Egypt's political and economic reform strategies."
