CAIRO: Judge Ismail Al-Bassiouny, president of the Qena Court of Appeals, was elected president of the Judges' Club in Alexandria on Friday, defeating Mahmoud Al-Khodeiry, vice president of the Cairo Court of Appeals, by 103 votes. More than 1,000 judges voted for the new president and 14 members of the Club's board, the seats of which were contested by 35 judges. Al-Bassiouny s victory in the election came as a surprise mostly because his staff list is composed of employees from the Ministry of Justice, which has been at loggerheads with Judges' Clubs nationwide for over two years over their demands to gain independence from the ministry. Al-Khodeiry's staff list, on the other hand, included judges known for their strict anti- ministry positions. However, Hisham Al-Bastawisy, vice chairman of the court of appeals, who has long called for the separation of the Judges' Clubs from the Ministry of Justice, told Daily News Egypt that he does not see any problem with the appointment of Al-Bassiouny. "I find it logical for Al-Bassiouny to win because the other candidate has been the president of Alexandria's Judges' Club for two successive terms, he added. The new president, he continued, will play a decisive role setting the relationship between the Club and the government, and to what extent the judicial authority would interfere in the Club's positions and decisions. Al-Bastawisy, who was appointed representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Egypt last year, told Daily News Egypt in a previous interview that the judges don't have a problem with the minister in person, but with decisions that impede judicial independence. Last July, Yehia Ragheb Dakroury, chairman of the Judges' Club, filed a lawsuit against Minister of Justice Mamdouh Marie at the State Council, accusing him of insulting judges. Dakroury's complaint was one of a series of accusations exchanged between the Judges' Club and Marie that continued for two weeks.
