Sunday Times 2
Egypt judges slam Mursi
View(s):CAIRO, Nov 24 (AFP) – Egyptian judges accused President Mohamed Mursi yesterday of an “unprecedented attack” on the judiciary by assuming sweeping powers putting him beyond judicial oversight, with some going on protest strike.
Earlier, anti-riot police fired tear gas to disperse anti-Mursi protesters camped out in Cairo’s Tahrir Square as Western governments voiced growing concern over the political crisis. The Supreme Judicial Council said after an emergency meeting that Mursi’s constitutional declaration was “an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings.”
The council, which handles administrative affairs and judicial appointments, called on the president to remove from the declaration “anything that touches the judiciary.” The Judges Club of Alexandria announced “the suspension of work in all courts and prosecution administrations in the provinces of Alexandria and Beheira.”
And they “will accept nothing less than the cancellation of (Mursi’s decree),” which violates the principle of separation of powers, club chief Mohammed Ezzat al-Agwa said.
The president already held both and executive and legislative powers, and his Thursday decree puts him beyond judicial oversight until a new constitution has been ratified in a referendum.
In Cairo, a statement by some 20 “independent judges” said that while some of the decisions taken by the president were a response to popular demands, they were issued “at the expense of freedom and democracy.”
Mursi has ordered the reopening of investigations into the deaths of some 850 protesters during the 2011 uprising, and hundreds more since.
New prosecutor general Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah said new “revolutionary courts” would be set up and could see former president Hosni Mubarak, his sons and his top security chiefs retried “should there be new evidence.”
The mainly secular liberal activists have voiced determination to keep up the momentum of protests against Mursi’s decree and have called a new mass protest in Tahrir for Tuesday.
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