While parliament seems to have ended a crisis with the judiciary, judges remain combative, Mona El-Nahhas reports At a press conference held on Saturday in parliament, speaker Saad El-Katatni expressed his "total respect for Egypt's honourable judges who, via their rulings, strongly implant the principle of the sovereignty of law." El-Katatni stressed that the current crisis, which erupted between the legislative authority and the judiciary, will soon come to an end. Last week witnessed verbal clashes between representatives of the two authorities in the wake of the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak, his two sons Alaa and Gamal, former interior minister Habib El-Adli and six of El-Adli's top aides. On 2 June, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced both Mubarak and El-Adli to life imprisonment for not preventing the killings of largely peaceful demonstrators at the height of the January Revolution. El-Adli's aides, however, were acquitted of any involvement in the killings for lack of evidence. Furthermore, Mubarak and his sons were acquitted of charges of corruption and illegal profiteering. The verdicts were met by mass street protests in towns and cities across Egypt, calling for a re-trial and a purge of the judiciary. Prosecutor-General judge Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud contested the verdicts before the Court of Cassation. During an emergency session on 4 June, a number of parliamentary members severely criticised the judiciary and the verdicts, especially those which involved the killings of demonstrators. Reacting to the public attack on the judiciary, veteran judge Hossam El-Gheriani, chairman of the Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC), issued a statement on 5 June in which he called upon all to stop tackling judicial procedures and court rulings. El-Gheriani asked the people, the parliament and the government to "give the judiciary the trust and the respect it deserves." Addressing parliamentary members, El-Gheriani asked them to "be up to the responsibility, which they were assigned by the people in order to guard the constitutional institutions of the country." El-Gheriani said he hoped Egypt's judges would be more patient while facing such attacks. El-Gheriani's statements failed to satisfy many judges who viewed them as being "not enough". Adopting a wholly different approach, Ahmed El-Zend, chairman of the Judges Club, fired off fiery statements. "If we knew that the elections would bring to power such MPs, we would not have supervised the elections," El-Zend said during a press conference on 7 June. El-Zend's comments were seen as an insult to the parliament and interpreted as referring to Islamist forces in parliament. "It's not acceptable to talk about a specific political trend in such racial tones, even if he disagrees with them," said Nader Bakkar, official spokesman of the Salafist Nour Party. In what was viewed as widening the gap between the two authorities, El-Zend insisted that judges would not apply a would-be judiciary law if it was endorsed by the current parliament. In this connection, El-Zend called upon Justice Minister Adel Abdel-Hamid and the SJC chairman judge El-Gheriani to withdraw the proposed amendments of the judiciary law from parliament. El-Zend's attack was not limited to parliament. The club chairman vowed to freeze the membership of all judges who commented on the ruling of the criminal court to the media. El-Zend was widely criticised when he announced that "from now on judges will have a say in politics and in determining the future of this country." Following the press conference, El-Zend met the chairmen of seven branch judges clubs to determine future steps. Boycotting the presidential run-off elections and appealing to the World Judges Federation were among the options suggested. A statement issued following the meeting urged the necessity for delaying the new judiciary law until the constitution is drawn up on the grounds that such a law is a constitution-supplementary law. The statement insisted that the basic principles which guarantee total independence of the judiciary should be included in the new constitution in order to be obligatory for all state institutions. Reacting to El-Zend's statements, El-Katatni said he would not reply "to such insults", demanding an explanation from the SJC. Judge Mahmoud El-Khodeiri, chairman of the parliament's legislative committee was reluctant to comment on El-Zend's statements. "Such talk is not up to standard and should not receive any reply," El-Khodeiri said briefly. El-Zend's statements elicited varied reaction from judges. One group, belonging mainly to the independence current, were not in favour of El-Zend's stance, viewing it as tarnishing the image of the judiciary. Some described his attack on Islamist forces as propaganda for presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik ahead of the run-offs. El-Zend is reputedly a supporter of the former regime to which Shafik, as Mubarak's last prime minister, ascribes to. According to reformist judge Hisham Geneina, the true reason behind El-Zind's statements was to impede the passage of the new judiciary law "which will achieve judicial independence". El-Zend's remarks about freezing the membership of judges who talk to the media was viewed by Geneina as an attempt to exclude reformist judges from running in any future elections of the club, especially after it was reported that dozens of judges are now collecting signatures to withdraw confidence from El-Zend. "You will not be able to collect even 100 signatures," El-Zend addressed reformist judges while being interviewed on a TV talk show programme. "Be ready for early elections of the club council because I will beat you," El-Zend added. Another group of judges announced their backing of El-Zend's statements, noting that they reflect their own stance. Still, in what was viewed as an escalation on the part of judges, dozens of judges have been filing complaints to the prosecutor-general against a number of parliamentary members, accusing them of insulting the judiciary and doubting its integrity.
