CAIRO: The Appeals Court chairman has rescinded his decision to dissolve judicial district 119, Vice Chairman of Cassation Court Ahmed Mekky told Daily News Egypt Wednesday. Earlier last week, the Chairman of the Appeals Court Intissar Nassim, who officially retired Wednesday, had decided to dissolve judicial district number 119, which looks into cases filed against judges. The move was severely criticized by judges who saw it as a form of government intervention into judicial affairs. “We collected signatures calling for an urgent meeting of the court's General Assembly in response to the decision,” Mekky said. A few days later, Nassim succumbed to the judges' pressure and retracted his decision. Mekky explained that the general assembly's decision to hand over the authority to dissolve judicial districts to the appeals court chairman was wrong in the first place. He added that based on the principle of the independence of the judiciary, the court's general assembly should be the entity in charge of managing court affairs. According to Mekky, the Judges Club had earlier called for cancelling this procedure and maintaining the authority of the general assembly. Last week, independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted “informed sources” saying that judicial district 119 had earlier repealed decisions by Minister of Justice Mamdouh Marie concerning the employment status of a number of judges; implying that the ensuing dissolution of the district 119 was a retaliatory measure.
