Obituary: Defender of freedom Awad El-Morr (1934-2004) Awad El-Morr, a former chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), passed away on Monday after a prolonged battle with cancer. El-Morr was a celebrated legal expert and constitutional scholar, as well as an avid advocate of freedom of expression. Born in the coastal city of Port Said in 1934, El-Morr grew up in the heady atmosphere of a bustling port teeming with travellers from around the world. His father was a retail merchant who encouraged young Awad to benefit from the city's open-minded aura. El-Morr ended up studying law. The decision -- like so much in his life -- was primarily based on intuition. He was rarely one to over-rationalise issues, a personality trait that expressed itself both in and out of the courtroom. El-Morr's lifelong cause was the defence of freedom of expression, and he firmly believed that one of the judiciary's primary roles was ensuring the protection of this very basic of human rights. "Freedom of expression," he once said, "does not depend on whether a particular idea is right or wrong. Its only objective is to lay down grounds for knowing the truth. People should be open to all ideas, whether they are consistent with society's norms or not. Whether they are reprehensible or acceptable, ambiguous or clear, whether they satisfy or anger us -- all must be laid down on the table. It is called the 'free trade of ideas'. To restrict the freedom of expression is to cancel the right of citizens to think." In 1993, El-Morr described a new law that mandated prison sentences for journalistic libel and slander as "unconstitutional". The law was later annulled. El-Morr began his career as a state attorney. Later, he advised several Egyptian and Arab governments on major international treaties like the Law of the Sea Convention. In 1983 he became a member of the Commissioner's Body of the Supreme Court, the precursor of the Supreme Constitutional Court, which he ended up heading in 1991. El-Morr described himself as "an activist judge". He helped to establish the court's reputation as the Middle East's best-known judicial institution, having issued courageous, landmark decisions on a range of cases, from giving an alien the same constitutional protections as an Egyptian, to barring the confiscation of personal property by the state. Primarily, however, El-Morr saw the SCC as "the way out of oppression and tyranny." He had faith in the court's mandate as an effective guarantor of inalienable human rights, defending individual integrity and dignity -- irrespective of race, national, ethnic or social origins, wealth, birth, language, colour or sex -- against invasion of privacy, exposure to unwarranted seizure or search, and the threat of cruel or unusual punishment. El-Morr always took his work seriously; despite his good sense of humour, the court's work was of vital importance to him. After leaving the SCC, El-Morr worked as a lawyer, taking part in the high-profile case of Egyptian-American human rights activist Saadeddin Ibrahim. As the former head of the SCC, El-Morr challenged the constitutionality of laws penalising the "tarnishing of Egypt's image abroad", as well as military orders issued under the provisions of the Emergency Law. El-Morr's son, as well as a daughter who is married and resides in Canada, survive him.
