A number of Egyptian judges on Wednesday criticized a judicial authority for appointing the sons of judges and police officers to posts in the judiciary, giving them preference on the basis of their family connections, despite their poor academic grades. On Tuesday, Al-Masry Al-Youm revealed a number of “stark violations” regarding State Council appointments for the class of 2009. According to the revealed information, 38 sons of judges and 35 sons of police officers were appointed to positions within the legal body, many of them with poor academic grades from university. The State Council, or Maglis al-Dawla, was established in 1946 and is considered Egypt's highest legal body. It is tasked with deciding administrative disputes with regards to the exercise of state power. On hearing the reports of the extent of nepotism in the body, a number of State Council judges furiously demanded the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces terminate these appointments. Meanwhile, dozens of graduates who were not appointed to the body, despite the fact that they graduated with honors, have organized a number of protests to be held outside the State Council next week to denounce the violations. Mohamed Hamed al-Gamal, former head of the State Council said that such violations had become a regular phenomenon since he graduated in 1991. He went on to say that Al-Masry Al-Youm's revelations were proof of what he described as “violating the rights of Egyptians to work in public sector positions." Constitutional professor Tharwat Nadawi expressed his sorrow over the violations, saying it reflected negatively on the judges themselves. Translated from the Arabic Edition
