CAIRO, 14 May 2005 — Egyptian judges took a provisional decision yesterday to abstain as election supervisors this year if the government fails to guarantee them full oversight of the process.
The tough position, taken by consensus at a four-hour meeting attended by some 3,000 judges, adds to the pressure on the government and on President Hosni Mubarak, who is widely expected to seek a fifth six-year term in September.
The judges also tied their cooperation on elections to the government’s response to their separate demand that a draft law on the judiciary ensures independence from the executive.
“If there is no response to our demands on both issues ... we will have absolved ourselves of responsibility before the people for supervising the elections,” said Judges Club Chairman Zakaria Abdel Aziz.
The Arabic satellite television channel Al-Jazeera had planned to broadcast the meeting live but Egyptian police thwarted that plan by detaining nine of its camera crews about an hour before the meeting, bureau chief Hussein Abdel Ghani said.
Shortly after the meeting ended, Al-Jazeera said the police have released the nine men, who included two reporters. The Journalists Syndicate condemned the detentions.
Earlier, hundreds of riot police formed a human wall yesterday to keep apart rival groups of pro-government and opposition demonstrators who had gathered in the center of Cairo.
Around 1,000 supporters of President Hosni Mubarak rallied outside the headquarters of the journalists’ union, while 500 or so opponents gathered inside the adjacent offices of the Bar Association. Police blocked off the surrounding area to traffic and moved to separate the rival demonstrators.
