CAIRO: Protesting legal specialists will resume their protests every Sunday and Wednesday, after legal specialists' offices nationwide donated LE 1,000 each from their own salaries to finance the protests. Protestors had announced earlier that they are not able to cope financially with the ongoing protests on Sundays and Wednesdays, which they refer to as "millennium days because they gather at least 1,000 protestors. Meanwhile, the Lawyers' Syndicate issued an official statement expressing solidarity with legal specialists' demands after a committee formed by the syndicate to study the issue found that the Ministry of Justice's new decisions were unconstitutional. Specialists, who started a sit-in last July, 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, specialists demanded the cancellation of obligatory appointment at court rooms and equality with employees at the administrative prosecution and state judicial authority. More than 15 independent MPs joined the protestors in an Iftar Wednesday and pledged to form a delegation to meet President Mubarak to present the specialists' demands. "We are optimistic that these efforts will result in a resolution, Mohamed Tahoun, spokesperson of legal specialists told Daily News Egypt. MPs, including Mostafa Bakry, Gamal Zahran and Saad Aboud, contacted officials at the ministry as well as Fathy Sorour, head of the People's Assembly, to reach a solution to the crisis. Specialists were promised a resolution this week with the ministry expected to issue new decisions regarding the new incentives plans and periodic book number eight. However, the decisions are yet to be issued. "Our negotiations with the ministry have come to an end, Tahoun said. Press reports said that more than 250,000 unsolved cases have been on the shelves for the past two years. However, Tahoun said that this is normal and that the number of pending cases sometimes even exceeds this number. "Every year, there are more than 750,000 cases that we have to work on and we are only 2,000 specialists; normally we finish 600,000 cases and the rest is postponed for the next year, he said. According to Tahoun, in order to close these pending cases, a specialist must handle more than 125 cases while his average rate per month is five and any extra cases are paid for as incentives. Specialists receive LE 400 as a basic salary and LE 500 for closing an average of five cases. If one fails to close five cases, he only receives the basic salary. "It would take massive effort to complete all these pending cases; the ministry has to employ more specialists, Tahoun said.
