DESPITE the public concern over the courts repeatedly finding many symbols of Mubarak's regime innocent of murdering demonstrators during the January 25 Revolution, it would be unwise to attribute these rulings to corrupt judges and therefore to organise demonstrations calling for the purging of the judiciary, as the Muslim Brotherhood did last Friday. Members of the Supreme Judicial Authority were the first to call for reforming their institution, in order to ensure their independence; and they have already prepared some draft laws for implementing this reform. However, the Shura Council has been working on a draft law that would lower the retirement age of judges from 70 to 60; if this law were passed, about 3,500 judges would have to retire overnight. The judiciary and the opposition think that the proposed law would spell a massacre of the judiciary; they think it would lead to this prestigious institution being purged of its senior judges, for the benefit of new ones loyal to the MB regime. Strangely, some senior judges who are close to the Islamist parties, as well as Minister of Justice, are opposed to this law, whose purpose, they believe, is to terrify the judges, allowing the Islamist-dominated Shura Council to get their revenge on them. In response, the Judges' Club has decided to hold an emergency meeting of its general assembly, to debate the ongoing assault on the judiciary. They will also decide how best to protect their institution from interference by the legislative and executive authorities. Some judges and other men of law are even considering suing the Shura Council on the grounds that, so they believe, it lacks legitimacy. Shortly before Mohamed Morsi was named the winning candidate in 2012 presidential elections, the Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the first Parliament since the revolution. It did so on the basis that the Election Law, which regulated the voting for Parliament, was unconstitutional. Members of the Shura Council (Upper House of Parliament) and the country's legislature were also elected according to this law that proved unconstitutional. However, the political troubles that have dominated the country since then, as well as the Islamists' siege of the Constitutional Court late last year and the constitutional crisis, have prevented the Court from issuing a similar ruling for dissolving the Shura Council. Nevertheless, the MB's insistence on issuing this law now would definitely deepen the rift between the different state institutions and raise world concern over the stability of this country, at a time when the President is working hard to convince the world to help Egypt out of its economic crisis.
