Month: May 2006

One of my favorite anti-Bush liberal bloggers in the US, Whiskey Bar, has a long post about Sharm Al Sheikh, where he attending the WEF forum:

Sharm is one of those Third World beach resorts specifically designed to be as far removed as possible from the gritty realities of how the other four-fifths of humanity actually lives. It’s the Cabo San Lucas of Egypt, an incongruous little bubble of luxury and suntan lotion perched on the southern most tip of the Sinai peninsula, like a cheap piece of costume jewelry pinned to a mummy’s desiccated earlobe. You can fly here nonstop from Frankfurt, spend a long weekend working on your tan, and be back in the office with Gunter and Hans without ever setting eyes on an Egyptian who wasn’t checking you into your room or serving you a Mai Tai.

If Sharm had existed when the Israelites were wandering Sinai around looking for the Promised Land, they would never have made it. They’d still be lounging by the pool ordering drinks and trying to put the tab on Moses’ room.

I couldn’t agree more.

Update: Billmon has more.

We cannot pass on the opportunity to share this picture of Gamal Mubarak and bride-to-be Khadija pressing the flesh at the World Economic Forum summit in Sharm Al Sheikh. No doubt this further sinks this blog’s reputation to tabloid level, but we have to ask: what is she wearing?

I’ve uploaded a bunch of photos of today’s events on Flickr. Follow the slide show in order and you’ll a story of how today’s demos unfolded, although there were bigger ones (and more violence) in Abbassiya and Midan Talaat Harb that I did not see.

Here are a few:

1: Riot police and baltaguia attack protesters on Alfi Bey St.

2: Police and baltaguia gang up to beat a protester.

3: Police officer points out protesters to attack for baltaguia and orders them to attack.

(Baltaguia is a colloquial word for hired thug. They are used by police to beat up people.)

Hopefully more comment later, as I am swamped, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

Just got news from the High Court that Judge Mahmoud Mekki has been found not guilty. Judge Hisham Bastawissi’s case has been postponed since he was hospitalized yesterday after a heart attack.

I returned from this morning’s protests before the decision came out. There was a quite a lot of violence and many people (some say 260, mostly Muslim Brothers) who were arrested.

Details and pictures later.

Update: Ayman Nour’s appeal has been denied. This means he will serve his full five-year sentence and ends his political career, since past convicts cannot run for parliament.

I have received the document below, which is essentially a backgrounder to the current situation between Egypt’s judges and the Mubarak regime. It was formulated by a group of Egyptians involved in activism, human and the media to get a better picture out there of what this crisis is really about: the castration of the judiciary as a branch of government. In other words, the crisis is bigger than the two judges — Mekki and Bastawissi — that have been at the center of the storm:

Current events in Egypt represent an escalation in the conflict between a government intent on domesticating the judiciary, in order to expand the executive’s dominance in political life, and the judiciary’s attempts to ensure their independence and ability to act as a check on executive power. In recent years, the judiciary has become an important actor in efforts to maintain the separation between government branches. In June 2000, Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court passed a landmark ruling that all elections must be supervised by judges. Then, in 2003, a decision by the Court of Cassation (the Highest Appeals court) null-and-voided parliamentary electoral results for a high-ranking executive official. In response, the government has pursued a number of strategies to isolate and intimidate proponents of judicial independence.

The Court of Cassation’s president, who simultaneously represents the executive as the head of the presidential-appointed Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), has sent threatening letters to outspoken judges. The presidency is also implicated through appointments of known pro-executive judges to high positions throughout Egypt’s court system as well as a presidential decree that increased the retirement age of bench judges from 66 to 68 (against the will of the Egyptian Judges Club). More recently, the executive drafted a new judiciary law that is scheduled to be passed by parliament before the current session ends in June. The bill, which was not subject to any consultations with judges, is rumored to ignore the demands of the Egyptian Judges Club for greater independence and to further accelerate the process of the executive’s appropriation of the judiciary.

The source of the current protests is the attempt to dismiss two judges (Hisham al-Bastawisi and Mahmoud Mekky) who have publicly argued for the autonomy of the judiciary from the executive branch. The SJC has begun “competency” investigations into the two individuals on charges that they reported cases of election rigging in the country’s three most recent elections last year, spoke to the media about political affairs, and ‘disparaged’ the executive-affiliated SJC. Such investigations are unprecedented in Egyptian history. At least five more judges have been formally named and could be investigated in future cases. The response of Egyptian society and the international community is crucial in determining the fate of Egypt’s independent judges.

The executive has feigned all responsibility and refused to interfere in this matter by declaring that it is solely an internal judicial matter. This could not be further from the truth. Rather, these measures represent a culmination of the executive’s recent attempts to control the judiciary. What is at stake is the future autonomy of an already embattled judiciary to assert itself as a check to executive power and will. At the core of this struggle is the state’s attempt to nationalize the judiciary as its central legitimacy tool.

The Egyptian Judges Club has sought negotiation and compromise measures, which have all been rebuffed by the executive and led to an unavoidable showdown for control, power, and the future. The regime is determined, at seemingly any cost, to eliminate the independent judges from state ranks so that future governance – and an impending transition of presidential power – is unobstructed and declared legitimate by the judicial branch. This, in effect, has turned the situation into a zero-sum game in which the regime must increase the use of its repressive apparatus through detention and beatings of peaceful demonstrators, who are standing in solidarity with the judge’s demand for autonomy.

The two judges currently under investigation are scheduled to appear in front of the SJC-appointed disciplinary board in Cairo on Thursday 18th of May. The judges say they will appear before no such body until the security forces are removed from the streets and nearly 400 activists – from all political trends – that have been detained since 24 April – are released. Demonstrations, which have previously been met by severe repression and violence by the security services, are scheduled across the country. Yesterday, the Interior Ministry issued a statement banning “unlawful” protests, which is being understood as a threat of further escalation against demonstrators.

The interest of ordinary citizens in the judges is at unprecedented levels as the executive pursues its unprecedented measures against them. The judges – particularly those under investigation – have been catapulted into legendary hero status. The current events in Egypt are no mere crackdown on political parties, extra-parliamentary protest movements, or Islamist-leaning organizations – it is about the very nature of future governance.

A general protest, led by the judges, is scheduled for the 25th of May to mark the ongoing struggle between the executive and judiciary as well as to remember the one-year anniversary of the flawed referendum that amended the Egyptian constitution. These are occasions for those that care about the future of Egypt and the democratic rights of all to get involved.

Please distribute this document as widely as you can, particularly to relevant personalities around the world who work on Middle Eastern issues in government, academia, NGOs, the media and so on. It’s important that the current situation is not just seen as being about the integrity of two judges, but rather the independence of an entire branch of government. In the coming years, whether Egypt moves away from an authoritarian political model or not, the judiciary will be a key to legitimacy. Considering that the succession of President Hosni Mubarak has been left unclear, and that his own son may be vying for the job, the current crisis might be seen as an effort by the regime to smooth out obstacles to certain succession scenarios that are potentially unpopular.

Update: A French version of the same document is after the jump. Version Francaise du document sur les juges Egyptiens ci-dessous.

Continue reading The judges vs. the state: a primer

Hisham Bastawissi, one of two judges currently facing disciplinary action for having reported electoral fraud during last December’s parliamentary elections, is reported to have been hospitalized this morning after having a heart attack. No doubt the stress of the past few weeks had a role in that.

Bastawissi was due to return to court tomorrow for another disciplinary hearing.

More info later as it becomes available.

Update: There is coverage of Bastawissi’s condition at here (or here):

One of the judges at the center of a conflict between the Egyptian judiciary and the government had a heart attack on Wednesday, throwing into doubt the future of disciplinary proceedings against him.

In the Nile Delta town of Shibin el-Kom, police fired teargas to disperse protesters who gathered at the law courts in solidarity with the two judges and with a campaign for judicial independence from the executive, opposition leaders said.

Judges Club President Zakaria Abdel Aziz said judge Hesham Bastawisi was in serious condition in hospital after the heart attack at 3 a.m. Rights groups called on the authorities to postpone a disciplinary hearing set for Thursday.

“They gave him seven electric shocks … Of course he cannot go on trial tomorrow,” Abdel Aziz told Reuters.