Weighted scales
When judges are attacked in the courtroom, the dignity of the law is in shreds, writes Mona El-Nahhas
As sentence was being passed against former NDP MP Emad El-Gelda, found guilty of bribing Ministry of Petroleum officials, the courtroom erupted. El-Gelda's supporters attacked the panel of judges, tearing up papers and attempting to overturn their bench as the judges announced El-Gelda should serve a three-year prison sentence. The assailants were subsequently arrested on charges of assaulting the panel of judges and damaging public property.
Such incidents are far from isolated, leading many to question how it could have happened that judges are now seen as figures that can be attacked with impunity. Whatever happened to the dignity of the law?
While there are those who point to a lack of security in courtrooms others -- mostly pro-regime figures -- claim the judges have only themselves to blame. The latter charge has been led by Abdallah Kamal, editor-in-chief of the state-owned daily Rose El-Youssef, who in an editorial published on 31 May accused judges' clubs of being responsible for the judiciary losing all claim to prestige. Their anti-government stances and challenges to the Supreme Judiciary Council, argued Kamal, have so harmed the image of the judiciary that judges no longer command respect.
Judge Mohamed El-Bakri, chief justice of the Beni Sweif Court of Appeals, agrees with Kamal. When judges began to speak to the media and accused their colleagues of complicity in vote rigging, he says, they tarnished the image of the entire judiciary. Any clash with the executive, argued El-Bakri, compromises the standing of judges, and runs counter to their interests.
They are arguments that hold little if any water for those judges who have been struggling to secure guarantees from the executive of greater judicial independence.
"How can we expect the public to accord respect to judges when daily they see how the judiciary is humiliated by the state?" asks Hesham Geneina, secretary-general of the Cairo Judges' Club. "The public watch and what do they see? Judges who have been brave enough to expose electoral fraud are referred to disciplinary hearings."
"They see hundreds of court rulings, usually those that have some political dimension, ignored by those charged with their implementation." Then to cap it all, adds Geneina, the public watches as the constitution itself is amended and articles are steamrolled through parliament ending full judicial supervision of elections.
Judge Ahmed Mekki wonders how the regime, which unleashed its own thugs to assault judges as they attempted to supervise last year's parliamentary and presidential polls, can now turn round and blame judges when the public follow the example set by the state.
What has happened, says Geneina, is that the public has come to realise that the judiciary enjoys no independence from the executive. It is this, he says, that has caused them to lose any respect. "They no longer have confidence in court rulings, especially those related to cases concerning issues of public interest," argues Geneina.
Nasser Amin, head of the Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary, concurs. "After losing trust in a judiciary that cannot wrest even its own independence from the state, the public has no choice but to attempt to secure justice by taking direct action itself."
Caption: El-Gelda's supporters attacked the panel of judges as soon as they announced the verdict
C a p t i o n 2: El-Gelda's supporters attacked the panel of judges as soon as they announced the verdict
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/848/eg9.htm