Hamdi Khalifa, the chairman of the Bar Association, formed a committee to investigate the reports received by the Central Auditing Agency (CAA), the Judicial Committee and the Legal Affairs Committee on the financial irregularities of the previous board, in terms of LE 7 million that were given as loans to lawyers and other union staff, but were not paid back. Khalifa asked the Committee, which includes Mohamed Abdel Ghafar, Ibrahim Elias and Abu Bakr el-Dao, to find those responsible for these irregularities and all those involved. The new board decided to postpone today's meeting, as the members asked in a memo for some timeout to consult among themselves. Khalifa told Al-Masry Al-Youm: "Twenty members signed the memo, including Abdel Salam Kishk, Abu Bakr el-Dao, Ibrahim el-Qasim, Youssef el-Rashidi and Ibrahim Elias," pointing out that the members wanted to consult among themselves in order to make the right decisions. For his part, Magdy Abdel Rehim, the head of the Unrestricted Lawyers Movement, said the postponement was expected, as it is not possible for the members to make decisions without consulting among themselves. On another note, human rights organizations announced that they will join the defense team of Ahmed el-Khatib, the head of the Political Islam Department of Al-Masry Al-Youm, in the lawsuit that was filed against him by Sameh Ashour, the former chairman of the Bar Association, in which he accused Khatib of falsifying the CAA report on the financial irregularities of his board.
The following are also joining the defense team: Mohamed Hashim, Director of the Egyptian Observatory for Justice and Law, the East Cairo Lawyers Commission, the Trade Union Awareness Committee, the Cairo and the Giza Lawyers Commissions, the Lawyers against Corruption Movement, and lawyers Mokhtar Noah, Tharwat el- Kharbawi, Buthaina el-Qamash, Suleiman Hamed Suleiman, Mustafa el-Sherbini, Dr. Salem Abu Ghazala, Ramadan el-Arabi, Wael Harith, Atef Mahmoud Abed and Mohamed Saber Gawish.
