CAIRO - Egypt's judges have abandoned the bench and come to blows in front of a mesmerised public. The judges' reputation must have been dented when they started brawling, because they doubted the integrity and constitutionality of rulings issued by their colleagues. The unprecedented, upsetting battle between the nation's judges is now raging in the press and on television. Senior chief justices are in the forefront. Minister of Justice Mohamed Abdel-Aziz el-Gendi, who has a very respectable judicial record, has been caught in the crossfire, having been accused of shooting the first bullet. Deeply-entrenched values and ethics have been compromised as the military commanders have decided to use every weapon at their disposal to embarrass their chief enemy, the Minister of Justice. The guns blazed when the Minister of Justice referred two chief justices, Hassan el-Nagar and Alaa Shawqi, to the judicial disciplinary tribunal, having received a complaint from the military judges, who protested that el-Nagar and Shawqi had cast aspersions on the integrity of the rulings issued by courts martial. The two chief justices have been accused of criticising Egypt's courts martial system during television interviews and in the press. They have also been accused of sympathising with civilian suspects, unfortunate enough to be tried by courts martial. The two chief justices described courts martial as a ‘legal exception', also alleging that military judges deny defendants their legal rights, including the right to challenge the rulings against them. Their comments have given the public the impression that the human rights of suspects being tried by such courts are compromised and that military judges mete out summary justice. These military courts came under the spotlight when the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces took over when Hosni Mubarak resigned on February 11, after mass demonstrations. The Army swiftly deployed tanks and soldiers in the streets when the nation was plunged into a whirlwind of violence and theft, because the police disappeared mysteriously from the streets. Dozens of hardened criminals, who forced open the gates of many prisons on January 28th, have received harsh sentences from these courts, as have thugs wielding knives, swords and home-made guns, terrorising law-abiding citizens in their homes and places of work. The two chief justices violated a legal principle, according to which judges don't comment on court rulings in public, irrespective of whether the judges in question wear the traditional black robes or military fatigues. The two chief justices must have deeply embarrassed their colleagues. El-Nagar must have shocked the 80-year-old Minister of Justice by claiming that he'd been exhumed from the grave to assume office. “The Prime Minister should be blamed for exhuming someone [el-Gendi] and appointing him to the top post in the Ministry of Justice,” el-Nagar told Al-Masry Al-Youm independent newspaper last week. The chief justice also demanded an immediate apology from the Minister of Justice; if not, he said that he'd drag him to court to be tried for damaging the reputation of a chief justice and compromising his judicial immunity. El-Nagar said that no-one has the right to muzzle a judge and prevent him from airing his vision on domestic issues. El-Gendi refuses to respond and the battle has divided the judicial community in Egypt. His decision to refer the two chief justices to a disciplinary tribunal has received a lot of support from members of the Judges' Club. But others are very angry and are supporting the two chief justices. And the public is mesmerised by the fact that the chaos we now find in so many areas of life is now creeping into the judicial system, which, for centuries, has been one of Egypt's brightest gems.
