The police officer who shot a lawyer in a court is being held in detention for four days, pending investigations, after appearing before the prosecution late Saturday. The officer is being charged with assaulting a lawyer, and conspiring to kill him, spokesman for the Lawyers Syndicate Sherif Anany told Daily News Egypt. Anany said that the officer told the prosecution that he heard a loud noise and saw someone running, and so began to fire in the direction of the running. Anany also added that the injured lawyer Mohammed Al-Gamal's condition is stable. He is expected to appear before the prosecution for his testimony on Monday or Tuesday. Minister of Justice Ahmed Al-Zind condemned the assault, and expressed his appreciation for the work of lawyers, head of the Lawyers Syndicate in North Cairo Mohammed Osman told Daily News Egypt Sunday. Al-Gamal was shot Saturday in a Nasr City court in Cairo, after a quarrel broke out between himself and a colleague on one hand, a prosecution official and the police officer and other officers on the other. The Lawyers Syndicate announced a partial strike Sunday in protest of the incident. This comes at a time of already existing tensions between lawyers and the state. Last month, the Lawyers Syndicate held a general strike across Egypt in protest of the assault of another lawyer. The dispute, however, was resolved when President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi publicly apologised to lawyers, saying: "I owe you, and I apologise to you."
