CAIRO, 19 May 2005 — Judges in Egypt’s Council of State which deals with administrative and public matters said yesterday they would oversee a referendum on a new law allowing for competitive presidential elections. The decision came after the government agreed to the financial demands of the judges, who have joined a growing opposition campaign in Egypt pressing for political reforms.
The judges’ syndicate said it had now authorized its members to supervise the May 25 referendum on a constitutional amendment allowing multiple candidates to stand in presidential elections for the first time. Under the terms of a deal that followed a meeting with Justice Minister Mahmoud Abul Leil, the government decided to increase the number of judges serving on the Council of State that will supervise the referendum from 330 to 1,100.
The syndicate statement said Abul Leil had also agreed to grant judges a budget to be separate from the Justice Ministry, with a yearly allocation of one million pounds ($150,000). Land will also be designated to build rest houses to be used by judges when they go on mission outside the capital.
Meanwhile, Egyptian police have this month detained 753 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which has been behind a series of pro-reform protests against veteran President Hosni Mubarak, the group said. “The number of members of the Brotherhood held ... now totals 753 people, including 28 people arrested on Saturday and some 60 arrested on Tuesday,” said a statement.
Earlier, judicial sources said 56 Muslim Brotherhood members had been seized on Tuesday, accused of belonging to a banned group and “attempting to mobilize students and workers” against Mubarak’s 24-year-old regime.
Egypt has witnessed a wave of string of protests, many of them organized by the Muslim Brotherhood over what it says is Mubarak’s failure to engage in true democratic reforms.
Egypt’s Islamist and secular opposition is also demanding the lifting of emergency laws imposed after the assassination of Mubarak’s predecessor Anwar Sadat 24 years ago.
In another development, former leader of the Islamic Jihad group, held in prison for 24 years for taking part in the assassination of Sadat in 1981, has gone on hunger strike demanding his release.
Abboud Al-Zomor, one of the assassins of Sadat, called on the Egyptian authority to release him, saying he has the right to be freed. Al-Zomor was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but lawyers said he should have been released after serving 20 years in prison.
A Cairo state security court ruled last year that Al-Zomor should remain in prison the full 40 years on security grounds, while his cousin Tareq Al-Zomor who severed a 22-year sentence, also for involvement in the president’s assassination, ordered to be released.
