Chairman of the Judges' Club Ahmed Al-Zend strongly criticised the Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohamed Morsi in a press conference following a meeting between a group of senior judges and the presidency. Al-Zend said that he saw attempts to lower the retirement age for judges as an attack on the judicial system and an attempt by the Brotherhood to destroy it. He also pointed out that if the retirement age of judges was lowered to 65, then six judges in the Supreme Constitutional Court would be forced out, and that if it was lowered to 60, only one of the existing judges in that court would remain in his position. During his address he called on members of the Shura Council not to consider the suggested amendments to the Judicial Law. Al-Zend also condemned protests against court verdicts, and said that demonstrations “insulting the judiciary” were always planned by the Brotherhood and their followers. Al-Zend called for a General Assembly meeting of the Judges' Club on Wednesday to discuss the current impasse. The senior judge recognised that opponents would accuse him of engaging in politics as a result of his comments, and said “if engaging in politics frees Egypt, then we will engage in politics”. President Morsi met with Prosecutor General Tala'at Abdallah and the Supreme Council of the Judiciary amid ongoing political tensions surrounding the independence of the country's judiciary and calls to “purge” it. The president received the high-level judicial officials at the presidential palace on Monday to discuss the amending of the Judiciary Law. The judges told the president that they would refuse amendments to the law unless they were consulted first, maintaining that their role in changing the law was important for the body's independence, according to state-owned Al-Ahram. The judges were also reportedly upset and demanded an apology for accusations made during last Friday's Muslim Brotherhood-led rally at the High Court that the judiciary was severely corrupt. The president expressed his appreciation for the judiciary, and voiced disapproval of personal attacks on judges, advising that they work together to monitor actions committed by fellow judges. The committee will start discussing the bill on Tuesday despite Shura Council Speaker Ahmed Fahmy receiving a letter from Judges' Club president Ahmed Al-Zend warning against discussing the bill and urging the upper house of parliament to cancel it and leave such legislative issues to the next House of Representatives. Shura Council members dismissed the letter and said that it was unconstitutional for one branch of government to interfere in the affairs of another, adding that Al-Zend's threats were empty and that there was nothing he could do to the Shura Council. Opposition council members said they would draft an alternative judiciary bill that sets the retirement age for judges at 70 instead of 60 as the Al-Wasat bill does, adding that they would also remove the power to investigate judges from the Ministry of Justice and grant it to the Supreme Council of the Judiciary. They referred to the bill currently under discussion as a “massacre" of the judiciary. Additional reporting by Ahmed Aboul Enein
