The "acquaintance session" held by the chairman of the Bar Association Hamdi Khalifa last Thursday at the River Club in Maadi turned into clashes and exchange of abusive language by some supporters of Sameh Ashour, the association's former chairman. This came after lawyers attending the meeting accused Ashour's board of directors of being involved in financial corruption, especially in the project of treatment of lawyers.
However, Khalifa managed to contain the situation and issued consensual decisions reflecting that he agreed with the association's board of directors to manage the association away from the previous conflicts.
Clashes started when Khalifa asked the association's members to introduce themselves. Some of them talked about financial irregularities in the era of the previous board of directors, so some pro-Ashour members, including Khaled Abu Kerisha and Saeed Abdel Khaliq, objected. The crisis escalated when a group of lawyers asked to open an independent inquiry into Ashour's financial irregularities. Abu Kerisha and Abdel Khaliq stormed out of the meeting in protest against such accusations. Some pro-Ashour members moved to the middle of the room and entered into clashes with some lawyers. During the 15-minute clashes, the lawyers exchanged blows and insults. In addition, some journalists have been abused and chased by some pro-Ashour lawyers to prevent them from filming what was going on.
The camera crew of Al-Hayat Al-Youm (Life Today) TV program was beaten. One of the lawyers tried to break the program's camera. After that, Khalifa asked all lawyers and journalists to get out of the room and called for a closed-door meeting with the association's members for an hour. Ashour supporters refused to get out, so Khalifa called on security to force them to get out. After being expelled, the lawyers completed quarrels before the room's gate.
Khalifa allowed the media men to attend the meeting, which lasted more than 90 minutes, and apologized to them for what happened, expressing his respect for Ashour's board of directors.
Al-Masry Al-Youm learnt that Khalifa said during the closed-door meeting that he did not want to talk to the media about differences. He cut a cake to celebrate the first meeting of the new board of directors. He picked up the knife and said: "If you did not agree, I would slaughter you. We will succeed and will never fail."
