CAIRO:The group Lawyers for ElBaradei is temporarily putting the signatures campaign on the petition "Together for Change" on hold due to the current crisis between the lawyers and the judges, Moushir Aboul Fotouh, lawyer responsible for the campaign, told Daily News Egypt. The petition includes seven demands by the former IAEA head and reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei. Aboul Fotouh explained that a number of lawyers expressed concern over one of the demands in the petition regarding judicial supervision over the presidential elections in 2011. "A number of us have doubts about calling for judicial supervision on the elections, especially after the way we've been treated during the current crisis with the lawyers [and the judges]. How can we trust them [the judges] when it comes to the elections?" he said. Egypt's lawyers and judges have been in a standoff following the sentencing last month of two lawyers to five years in prison for assaulting a local prosecutor in Tanta, Gharbeya. Lawyers said they were assaulted first and that the sentence was too harsh. It's currently being appealed while the two lawyers remain in custody. Lawyers, backed by the syndicate, have since staged several strikes and sit-ins across the country. Aboul Fotouh said that the lawyers managed to collect around 5,000 signatures for the petition from people in different governorates including Cairo, Alexandria, Menufiya and Beni Suef.
