CAIRO: After 60 days of protesting and sleeping in front of the Ministry of Justice, legal specialists decided to suspend their protest and return to their offices after a meeting with Speaker of the People's Assembly Fathi Sorour on Wednesday. In a meeting at Sorour's office, he pledged to adopt the new specialists' law personally and guaranteed that it would be introduced at the next parliamentary session in November. He also promised to have the PA's legislative committee examine any controversial ministry decisions the specialists were objecting to. Specialists will wait until the committee finishes its work before deciding to continue the sit-in or break it up permanently. Sorour's initiative was welcomed by most protestors as "it came from a highly important official in the state with personal guarantees that their demands would be met. However, a small number said that they were determined not to leave until the issuance of official decrees canceling the ministry's decisions. However, they decided to comply with the majority of their colleagues "to maintain their unity and avoid conflicts. Specialists are demanding the cancellation of periodic book number eight which allows them to examine case files only inside the courtroom. They are also calling for an amendment to Law 96/1952 as well as better pay and work conditions. As protests escalated, the legal specialists demanded the cancellation of obligatory appointments at court rooms and equality with employees at the administrative prosecution and state judicial authority. "It all came unexpectedly, said Mahmoud El-Qobeisy, head of Alexandria's legal specialists' authority and one of the negotiators with the ministry. "Last Saturday we had a meeting with some of our leaders as well as the chief editor of one of the state-run newspapers who said he will interfere personally to resolve the crisis and that the minister agreed to our demands, Qobeisy said. The meeting comprised Mohamed Daher Hussein, head of the legal specialists club; Hussein Zaki, head of the specialists sector at the justice ministry; and Ali Haddad, head of the legal specialists' authority, "We waited for the resolution till last Wednesday but instead a security official told Daher, Ahmed El Ha ddad and Mervat Mostafa - as representatives of the protesting specialists - to head to the PA and meet Sorour, Qobeisy said. According to Qobeisy, Sorour had prepared for photographers and journalists from national newspapers to cover the meeting. He told specialists that their demands are legitimate and that they should have gone to him from the beginning. He divided their demands into financial and professional and specialists said they won't object to the new incentive policy by the ministry and that they are awaiting its implementation. Regarding their professional demands, he said that he will receive a draft law from the specialists to introduce it to parliament either through the ministry itself or through one of the MPs. "We accepted the suspension of the sit-in for a short time in appreciation of Sorour's intervention, Qobeisy said. "However, we decided to form a committee of specialists to follow up on the legislative committee's work, he added. A number of specialists were skeptical of the initiative as they preferred that the ministry's decisions regarding periodic book number eight and obligatory appointment at courtrooms to be suspended until the legislative committee completes its recommendations. "We wanted to come out with bigger gains as we already had our draft law and it was presented to many official authorities, instead of drafting a new one, said Mohamed Tahoun, spokesman of the protestors who was reluctant to accept the initiative. "We stayed till yesterday to send a message to those who think that specialists are tired and won't protest again. We also wanted to send a message to our colleagues to tell them that we would return if no resolution is reached, Tahoun said. He added said that they decided not to obstruct the resolution, since the majority welcomes the initiative. Specialists are now reviewing their draft law before introducing it to parliament.
