CAIRO: The Judges' Club announced Thursday its draft amendments to the judicial authority law, including 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. The draft amendments came after a committee formed by head of the SJC Justice Hossam Al-Gheryany, and headed by Justice Ahmed Mekky, former head of the Alexandria Cassation Court, announced its draft amendments following a dispute on who should draft them. "With these amendments we wanted to highlight the club's role as the guarantor and protector of judges' rights, a right that we shouldn't give up especially that we weren't presented at the SJC's committee," Justice Ahmed Al-Zend, head of Cairo Judges' Club, said at a press conference Thursday. The amendments included 85 articles with the aim of achieving judicial independence. The suggested amendments transfers the judicial inspection authority to the SJC and gives courts' general assemblies more authority to support the notion of collective management, for example giving judges the right to challenge decisions by superior authorities. The amendments also stipulate that refusing judges' requests must be accompanied by a reason, and no internal bylaws are to be implemented without the approval of the general assembly. Heads of courts and the SJC are not immune to judicial inspection. It adopted the principle of seniority in appointments, according to Al-Zend, to give equal chances to colleagues. The Prosecutor General is chosen, according to the amendments, from among the two highest ranking deputy heads of the Cassation Court, three highest ranking heads of Appeals Court nominated by the Cairo Appeals Court and the most highest ranking deputies of the Prosecutor General. They must have served as judge for at least seven years and worked at the General Prosecution for at least 10 years. The head of the SJC should be the highest ranking judge, either the head of the Appeals Court or the Cassation Court. The amendments reject any influence from the executive authority — the Ministry of Social Solidarity — on the Judges' Club, ban the appointment of judges in state executive or legislative institutions, and set new rules to diminish influence from the executive authority especially that it is "insufficient" to meet their needs. Al-Zend said that they tried to secure better working conditions for judges, which he described as "inhumane." New rules were set for judges' residences and working places so that they won't have to travel long distances. "We demand that the National Council for Human Rights interfere to secure a better working environment for judges in courts," Al-Zend said. The amendments kept regulations for loaning judges to foreign countries unchanged, describing it as an important tool of cultural influence that Egypt has in the region. The Judges' Club refused to cancel loan requests by name because foreign countries, namely Gulf countries, would then seek judges elsewhere and won't accept alternative suggestions. The club is set to present the amendments to a temporary general assembly Friday and, if approved, will be presented to the SJC who will make the final decision. "We took this step to have more discussions and recommendations from judges to achieve what is in their best interest; our role is to help the legislator because we don't have the authority to legislate and neither does the SJC," Al-Zend said. He denied that there is a conflict with the committee headed by Mekky saying that it is only a "difference in opinion." "We can't offend Mekky or any of the committee members because they are members of the Judges' Club and that would be considered an insult to us all; there is no real conflict although it might seem so," Al-Zend said. He said that if Mekky's committee has a better suggestion they will adopt it and that they are open to suggestions. Mekky's committee has been holding meetings and receiving suggestions from judges on the desired amendments, saying that his mission did not go beyond collecting opinions and drafting the amendments with no authority to implement the draft. The suggested changes by the committee include limiting the number of years that judges can spend outside Egypt on loan to six years once during their service; appointing the deputy heads of the Court of Cassation through direct elections rather than through seniority; and banning the appointment of judges in government or legislative posts to prevent any influence on judges from the executive authority. The committee is also studying suggestions to bring the judiciary inspection body under the authority of the SJC rather than the Ministry of Justice; giving the council, not the president, the power to appoint the Prosecutor General and stipulate that he is a judge who has attended court sessions rather than held an administrative position; cancelling the state security prosecution altogether and appointing new judges based on the results of written examinations to avoid nepotism.
