Negotiations between technical experts working for the Ministry of Justice and ministry officials have ground to a halt, reports Mona El-Nahhas As the strike by experts at the Justice Ministry enters its fifth week there are no signs that the dispute is any nearer to being solved. Experts are demanding that a decree issued last June by the Justice Minister's former assistant regulating their work practices be annulled. The decree bans the forwarding of files relating to cases being heard in court to experts' offices for technical advice and instead obliges them to examine any relevant files in the court. The only exception to the rule would be at the discretion of the panel hearing the lawsuit. Ministry officials argue the decree is necessary after a number of recent cases in which important documents were lost and that it will help speed up litigation. Two rounds of negotiations have failed to reach a compromise, with the ministry insisting the decree must remain and experts saying they will not abandon their action until it is cancelled. "We halted negotiations with the ministry after talks proved fruitless," expert Akram El-Deeb told Al-Ahram Weekly on Monday. "Instead of taking serious steps to end the situation the ministry has done nothing but make empty promises and try to stir divisions within our ranks," says Mohamed Tahoon, one of the protesters. "We are not going either to change our demands or make concessions." Tahoon says Ministry of Justice officials are now refusing to meet the head of the experts' sector after backing away from earlier concessions over incentive payments. The experts have appealed to President Hosni Mubarak to intervene in the dispute, and say that if necessary they will continue their action throughout the month of Ramadan. A suit has also been filed before the Administrative Court contesting the legality of the decree. Experts have been calling for the royal decree 96/1952 governing their work to be amended since the 1990s, on the grounds that it is no longer relevant to their jobs and has failed to ensure they receive adequate financial compensation. Attempts to endorse a draft law prepared in 1998 with the consent of experts have repeatedly failed. As well as cancelling the decree experts are demanding increased salaries and for judicial immunity to be extended to cover their jobs. The Justice Ministry says a new draft law is currently being prepared and is expected to be submitted to the People's Assembly during the next parliamentary session. They point out that the demand for judicial immunity is beyond the Ministry's mandate and would require a constitutional amendment before it can be granted.
