Judges advocating judicial reform are being subjected to a smear campaign The chief justices of Egypt's eight Courts of Appeal attacked the Cairo Judges' Club board in a strongly worded statement issued on Sunday, reports Mona El-Nahhas. The board, claimed the statement, had harmed the image of the judiciary and should resign. The statement was issued following an invitation from the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) to the Judges' Club, received on 28 March, to discuss the Club's concerns over judicial independence. "We did not suggest a specific agenda for the meeting", said Fadi El-Qadi, Human Rights Watch's Africa and the Middle East representative. The meeting was scheduled for 5 April at the Cairo Judges' Club downtown headquarters. Fearing the invitation could be used by the state against judges, club chairman Zakaria Abdel-Aziz immediately informed Justice Minister Mahmoud Abul- Leil of the invitation in writing, and requested that the minister attend the meeting, or delegate a representative, to present the official point of view. On Sunday, the minister told club officials the invitation had alarmed the concerned authorities and asked Abdel-Aziz to cancel the meeting. The club then apologised to HRW for cancelling the meeting, following which the HRW expressed concern over the pressures to which the Judges' Club had been subjected. "The statement issued by the eight judges is part of a wider smear campaign against the Judges' Club in which state-owned newspapers are playing a central role," Hesham Geneina, secretary-general of the Judges' Club, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "They have accused us of dealing with a Zionist organisation and of allowing the club to be used as a tool for the US to pressure the Egyptian government. Such allegations are nonsense. The patriotism of the club is above suspicion." Last year the club refused to meet a delegation from the US Congress dispatched to Egypt to monitor elections. "The club has also turned down an invitation by the US ambassador to attend an Iftar banquet at which senior officials from the Justice Ministry were present," noted Geneina. According to Hesham Bastawisi, deputy chief justice of the Court of Cassation, "the poisonous campaign reflects the panic of officials after they heard about the invitation." Geneina dismissed the statement by the Courts of Appeal Chief Justices. It was issued, he said, by "those who have no legal authority to speak on behalf of judges. They were simply pushed by the state, which appointed them, to stab the club in the back". Such back stabbing has not been restricted to the statement. One of the eight judges, Adel Andrawes, of the Alexandria Court of Appeal, convened an emergency general assembly on 29 March during which pro-reform judges were repeatedly criticised. A statement, issued following the general assembly, described members of the Judges' Club as a minority happy to violate judicial principles and harm the image of the judiciary. The pro-state judges claimed that Judges' Clubs do not represent the opinions of the majority of judges. That, they claim, is the prerogative of the government appointed Supreme Judicial Council. Judge Ahmed Mekki, deputy chief of the Court of Cassation, said the aim behind the assembly had been to create the impression that judges are divided. "It gives the state an opportunity to drag its feet over judicial independence," said Mekki. "They will not succeed, though. Pro-government judges are a tiny minority, while the vast majority of judges are demanding reform." Indeed, last week's general assembly was poorly attended while the reformists among judges who sit on the Alexandria Court of Appeal were given no advance notice of the agenda, said Ashraf El-Baroudi, one of their number. El-Baroudi was interrupted while delivering a speech to the assembly, which witnessed heated clashes between pro-reform and pro-government judges. In his speech El-Baroudi called upon the state-appointed Supreme Judicial Council to allow judges to see the draft law governing the role of the judicial authority before it is referred to the People's Assembly. The draft, initially prepared by the Judges' Club in the early 1990s, is rumoured to have been heavily amended by the Supreme Judicial Council, with one amendment granting the council a supervisory role over Judges' Clubs. "Such supervision will give the council the right to overturn club decisions if they weren't approved of by the state. It would be better simply to dissolve the Judges' Clubs rather than neuter them in such a way," said Mekki. The council will also have the right to assess the performance of senior judges. "Of course these assessments will be subject to criteria that have nothing to do with efficiency," Mekki said, vowing that judges will never agree to the amendments. "We'll go on fighting until we achieve our independence. Nothing in the world is going to stop us."
