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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 April 1999 Issue No. 425 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 April 1999 Issue No. 425
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Bar 'liberated' briefly
By Mona El-Nahhas
A 10-member "interim committee" briefly took over the downtown head office of the Bar Association on Sunday, three days after the withdrawal of security forces, who had sealed off the building for three consecutive weeks. But the committee, backed by dozens of lawyers, had to leave after security forces reappeared. The "interim committee" was established last month by an extraordinary general assembly seeking to end the three-year-old judicial sequestration imposed on the syndicate.
A few hours after the takeover, the chief of the Qasr Al-Nil police station arrived at the syndicate bearing an eviction order issued by the prosecutor-general. "We left the syndicate in order to avoid a confrontation with the police," said lawyer Ali Abdel-Aziz.
The custodians returned to the syndicate on Tuesday. But the possibility of another takeover attempt remains.
Lawyers staged Sunday's attempt after deciding to shelve their differences and to act in unison to re-establish the independence of their organisation. Wafdist Ahmed Nasser and Nasserist Sameh Ashour, both candidates for the post of syndicate chairman, agreed to end their power struggle. Nasser, who originally opposed the interim committee formed by Ashour at an extraordinary general assembly, changed his position and decided to join with his rival's committee. His supporters were with the committee members during Sunday's takeover attempt.
During the attempt, the custodians dismissed the syndicate's employees in order to deny committee members the opportunity of examining papers and documents in their possession. Dozens of lawyers gathered on the syndicate's ground floor and in the office of custodian Abdel-Aziz Gabr. Looking pale, Gabr told Al-Ahram Weekly that he did not acknowledge the interim committee or the general assembly that established it, describing both as illegal. "Accordingly, I will not provide committee members with any documents," he said.
Gabr, who described the takeover attempt as an "occupation," argued that he was appointed by a court order and could only be removed by another court order. He also said that he would not request the intervention of security forces "because lawyers have every right to stay in their own syndicate." However, he expressed fears that intruders might enter the building with angry lawyers.
The other custodian, Ahmed Reda Ghatwari, locked himself in his office, apparently in order to establish telephone contact with state officials.
The interim committee established a sub-committee to prepare lists of voters and send them to a judicial committee, empowered by law to supervise syndicate elections. "For the past three years, the custodians have been claiming that preparing the lists of voters was a complicated task that needed a long time. They used this as a pretext for stopping elections from taking place," said Assem Abdin, a sub-committee member. Maintaining that the lawyers who staged Sunday's attempt "care very much for their syndicate and its funds," he said they would never allow acts of violence to take place there.
The interim committee said it would allocate a room for the custodians to supervise the syndicate's financial affairs. "We have nothing to do with financial affairs. We leave it all to the custodians. However, lawyers will never forgive whoever wastes their money or alters their will," Abdin said.
Nevertheless, Atteya Shaalan, head of the interim committee, announced that it would soon ask the Central Auditing Authority to check all syndicate accounts since it was placed under sequestration. He also said that he expected security forces to re-intervene and close the syndicate again.
According to Shaalan, hundreds of lawyers will gather next Tuesday at the syndicate's head office to stage a sit-in strike.
