Pro-reform judges facing tribunal garner support

Cairo: Judge Mahmoud Mekki, who faces a disciplinary tribunal on May 11, said it would be the happiest day in his life when he is dismissed from his post.

A probe was ordered against Mekki and his colleague Hesham Al Bastaweesi over statements in which they called for investigations into alleged rigging during Egypt's parliamentary elections held late last year.

Justice authorities said their statements damaged the judiciary's reputation.

"If dismissed, this would be an honour any judge in Egypt wishes, because my track record is impeccable," Mekki told Gulf News. "It will go down in history that attempts to axe us are because of our advocacy of national interests."

Mekki said they were referred to the disciplinary tribunal because they demanded in the media a law establishing judicial independence and genuine monitoring of elections.

Clashes

On April 27, a disciplinary tribunal adjourned until May 11 a decision on Mekki and Al Bastaweesi, who are deputy chiefs of the Cassation Court, Egypt's highest judicial authority. The decision to question the senior judges has drawn massive protests from political and rights activists.

Scores of riot police last Thursday blocked the way to the Supreme Court in central Cairo where Mekki and Al Bastaweesi showed up for a disciplinary court hearing. Supporters gathered at the nearby Press Syndicate and Bar Association to show solidarity. A dozen activists were arrested in the ensuing clashes.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch had criticised the Egyptian authorities for "punishing judges just for doing their job".

The group added in a report that "(the government) should be investigating the widespread evidence of voter intimidation, not shooting the messengers who reported them". In an interview with the semi-government Al Gomhuria last week, President Hosni Mubarak denied his government was involved in the current row. "It is a difference between the judges themselves. More specifically, it is between the Judges' Club (an equivalent to a judicial union) and the (state-run) Supreme Judicial Council," Mubarak said.

Abdullah Al Senawi, editor of Nasserist newspaper Al Arabi, argued that the judges want "full and genuine" supervision of elections.

The writer is a journalist based in Cairo