CAIRO: Justice Minister Mamdouh Marie, backtracked Sunday on his controversial draft law, which gave the ministry sweeping powers over judges under investigation, allowing it to strip them of immunity and penalize them. Marie's announcement was made during a press conference at the ministry. According to the ministry's media office, Marie said he will revise the new law, promising to delete the contentious sections regarding immunity. On Friday, the press reported that the Center of Independent Judges and Lawyers, which includes members of the Judges' Club which calls for a free and independent judicial council, issued a strongly-worded statement denouncing the proposed law. Judge Hisham Al-Bastawisy, vice chairman of the Egyptian Court of Appeals, told Daily News Egypt in a previous interview that the draft law contradicts worldwide laws that give judges immunity - leaving the judicial councils the only authority that monitors the judges and conducts investigations when necessary. "If the government wants to investigate a judge, according to the constitution, it has to go through the public prosecutor who has to approve any request to lift a judge's immunity. Even then the investigations are to be conducted by the supreme judicial council not the Ministry of Justice, Al-Bastawisy added. Al-Bastawisy, who was also recently appointed representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Egypt, added that if Marie's law passes through parliament in its primary state, it would be in violation of the laws of judicial systems worldwide. This is the first time Marie responds positively to judges' demands following conflicts that have been raging between them for almost five months. Last July, Yehia Ragheb Dakroury, chairman of the Judges' Club, filed a lawsuit against 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.
