Senior judges defended Egypt’s judiciary on Thursday from attacks over its handling of the trial of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, accusing critics of trying to interfere with the institution’s powers and drag it into political battles.
Judge Ahmed el-Zend, head of the influential Judge’s Club, called for legal investigations into members of parliament for “slandering” the judiciary and the judge in the Mubarak case.
“This is an intervention in the work of the judiciary,” Zend told a news conference. “This is a dark, fierce attack against the judiciary.”
A court last Saturday sentenced the former president and his interior minister to life imprisonment for their role in the killings of protesters in last year’s uprising that ended Mubarak’s rule, saying they “failed to prevent” the killings.
Six senior police officers were acquitted for lack of evidence.
The verdicts were met by angry street protests by Egyptians, who considered them too lenient and demanded a purge of the judiciary.
Some members of the -Islamist-dominated parliament attacked the verdicts, accusing the court of ignoring the rights of the peaceful protesters killed in the uprising.
Zend said the judiciary would not be intimidated by such criticism.
“Judges will have a say in determining the future of this -country and its fate. We will not leave it to you to do with it what you want,” he said.
One of the few institutions to emerge intact from the uprising and that operated with some independence during Mubarak’s rule, the judiciary has since handled a series of high-profile cases that have put it into public focus and in some cases led to unpopular acquittals.
Many political battles of the transition have played out in the courts. Rulings have disbanded the former ruling party and dissolved an assembly charged with writing a new constitution after liberals and others charged it was dominated by Islamists.
Zaghloul al-Balshy, a senior judge and vice chairman of the Court of Cassation, said political pressures on the judiciary were affecting its image.
“People accepted to revert to the judiciary, then they must respect the judiciary. To shove it into what does not involve it has shaken confidence in the institution,” he said.
While he did not defend the ruling against Mubarak itself, he said if there were objections to the verdict, the appropriate legal avenue would be an appeal and not attacks on the courts and the judicial system at large.
“When people chant they want the purge of the judiciary, this means their confidence has been shaken,” Balshy added. “Why do they keep forcing us to face the cannons? Why are you putting us at the forefront of the political scene?”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of