Social Justice in deep freeze

By Fatemah Farag

The Political Parties Committee convened on 26 April to investigate the dossier of accusations and counter-accusations exchanged by two rival factions battling for control of the Social Justice party and its weekly newspaper, Al-Watan Al-Arabi. The Committee decided to freeze the party's activities, until a court-of-law rules on the dispute or an out-of-court settlement is reached by the two groups. With this decision, the Committee has become the common target of the two factions' wrath, providing them at last with something to agree upon after weeks of intestine bickering.

"Of course we are shocked by the decision," said a forlorn Azza Kamel, a leading party member and wife of Mohamed Abdel-Aal, the party's chairman who was first deposed by a rival faction and later restored by his own group. "We think this is a way of getting back at the newspaper which was fighting corruption, because there is nothing wrong with our party. We are very moderate, almost like a branch of the ruling National Democratic Party."

Kamel added that their lawyers were in the process of taking the necessary legal action against the decision, as well as pursuing their claims against the rival faction, headed by Abdel-Rashid Ahmed.

A deflated, but not defeated, Ahmed told Al-AhramWeekly, "We cannot comment on the decision... But I will tell you that it was not a surprise because this committee should be called the 'committee to turn down parties', and not the committee to legalise them. The battle will go on and we will contest this decision."

The Social Justice Party made news two weeks ago after 300 members held a controversial general assembly and elected Abdel- Rashid Ahmed as party chairman, thereby deposing Abdel-Aal. The latter and his supporters, however, refused to hand over party assets on the grounds that the general assembly was illegal. And on 24 April they held their own general assembly and unanimously re-elected Abdel-Aal.

In the meantime, avid readers of Al-Watan Al-Arabi -- a widely distributed weekly newspaper -- were treated to two versions of their favourite paper, one published on Sunday by Ahmed's faction and the other on Tuesday by Abdel-Aal's. However, readers will not enjoy a repeat of this double pleasure this coming week, since the newspaper was suspended along with other party activities.

The controversy threatened to take a nasty turn last week. In a statement signed by Ahmed and others describing themselves as Abdel-Aal's "victims who were slaughtered", Abdel-Aal was warned against holding his general assembly and told that he would be "sorry" if he went ahead. According to published reports, police arrested 13 thugs outside party headquarters on the morning scheduled for the assembly meeting. Although the identities of the thugs and those who hired them were not revealed, press reports said they were carrying molotov cocktails, firearms and knives.

Kamel said: "We held a very successful general assembly that was attended by 250 party members from 17 governorates, but we had to seek the protection of the Agouza police." Ahmed, however, claims the thugs were hired by Abdel-Aal.

Both parties have submitted full files of their accusations and counter-accusations to the Prosecutor General's Office which opened an investigation. Ahmed also filed a lawsuit with a Giza court requesting custodianship of the party. Hearings will open on15 May. "I had promised to drop the lawsuit when the general assembly elected me, but as things stand now, I will go through with this procedure as well," said Ahmed.

Meanwhile, insoluble mysteries remain. For example, how did two versions of the newspaper get printed and distributed, although the party is licensed to publish one newspaper only? Are business interests truly involved in the attempted take-over? And who stands to benefit from the present situation?