CAIRO: Head of the Judges’ Club Ahmed El-Zanad refuted press reports that claimed that Friday’s general assembly was a “failure” in a press conference.
“Around 3,000 judges attended the general assembly last Friday and they approved the basic principles of the amendments they are proposing to the judicial authority law,” explained Zanad.
These principles include transferring all authorities from the Ministry of Justice to the Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) and setting new rules for the appointment of judges and the prosecutor general.
Justice Ahmed Mekky, former head of the Alexandria Cassation Court, along with Head of the SJC Justice Hossam Al-Gheryany announced the draft amendments following a dispute over who should draft them.
“Media reports also claimed that last Friday the general assembly approved Judge Mekky’s amendments but we did not, we only agree with one clause regarding transferring all authorities from the Ministry of Justice to the SJC,” said El-Zanad.
El-Zanad also said that the board decided to file a complaint at the General Prosecutor against what he described as “the independence current,” referring to Mekky.
“We only resort to the judiciary to get our rights,” he said.
Furthermore, he accused Mekky of leaking false information to the media.
“What was published regarding Al-Gheryany sending a list of the corrupt judges who forged last year’s parliamentary elections to the head of the Supreme Electoral Commission, Judge Abdel Moez Ibrahim is also false, I have personally contacted him and he denied it,” said El-Zanad, who added that “there is no such thing as a corrupt judge.”
