Mona El-Nahhas reports on the continuing stand-off between judges and the state In a stormy general assembly held last Friday at the downtown headquarters of the Cairo Judges Club judges stressed that they will continue with their struggle, begun last year, until the state responded to their demands. Topping the list of those demands is the endorsement of a new judiciary draft law, prepared by the Cairo Judges Club in the early 90s and approved by a vast majority of members. The draft, which seeks to reduce the executive's control over the judiciary, would separate the judicial budget from that of the Ministry of Justice and establish an independent commission to assess the performance of judges. It would also replace the state-appointed Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) with an elected body more representative of the will of the judges. During the assembly judges insisted that they would refuse to accept any dilution to their demands and would stand firmly against SJC attempts to drain their draft law of content. Changes already introduced to the draft allow the SJC, for the first time, to assess the performance of senior judges. Zakareya Abdel-Aziz, chairman of the club, said the justice minister had drawn a veil of secrecy over the new legislation and had refused to allow the Judges Club to review the ministry's own draft. Mahmoud El-Khodeiri, chairman of the Alexandria Judges Club, directed his comments directly at the SJC. "History," he said angrily, "will record that you were the main impediment to a free and independent judiciary." "The battle for judicial independence the whole nation should fight," said Abdel-Aziz. Prosecutors sent hundreds of telegrams expressing solidarity with the judges and expressing their approval, in advance, of all assembly recommendations. Two days before the assembly Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed had ordered all prosecutors to be present in their offices on Friday, in what was tantamount to a ban on their attending the assembly. Judges condemned Abdel-Wahed's decision as a flagrant breach of the constitution and of international conventions, to which Egypt is a signatory, guaranteeing judicial freedoms. Friday's assembly resolved to stage a symbolic sit-in on 25 May, and extended an invitation to all human rights activists to participate. The date marks the first anniversary of the referendum on the amendment of Article 76 of the constitution, the results of which, said many judges charged with their supervision, were blatantly rigged. For half an hour before the assembly convened judges stood in silence in front of the club's headquarters, wearing their red and green sashes, in protest against the questioning by the Supreme State Security Prosecution of six pro-reform judges. The six had been outspoken in their criticism of irregularities in both the presidential and parliamentary elections and had accused some judges of complicity in rigging elections results. Yet instead of investigating the allegations of vote rigging the prosecutor- general requested that the SJC remove the judges' immunity so that they could be questioned on charges of harming the image of the judiciary. The SJC granted the request. Some 500 activists from Kifaya and the Muslim Brotherhood had demonstrated in front of the Judges Club earlier on Friday in a show of support. The general assembly adopted a motion in support of the six judges -- described by Abdel-Aziz as "martyrs to judicial independence" -- and rejecting the interrogation order.
