Egypt’s judges are up in arms over a draft law expanding the president’s control of the judiciary, saying on Sunday that the bill would undermine their independence and violate the principal of separation of powers.
Speaking at a news conference, judges labeled the bill as “suspicious” and “unconstitutional.”
The bill, whose first reading was rushed through parliament last week with uncustomary speed, empowers the president to ultimately pick the nation’s top judges from three nominees put forward by each of the judiciary’s councils and courts. Currently, the most senior judges automatically get the top jobs.
“We fully respect and appreciate the legislative branch and believe that it has a discretionary authority... However, this discretionary authority doesn’t mean in any way the presence of an authoritarian power,” Egyptian State Council deputy head Samir al-Bahy told the news conference.
The State Council is one of Egypt’s judicial authorities.
Judges believe the draft law is tailored to prevent specific judges from presiding over top courts and may be linked to a pair of high-profile rulings that annulled an agreement signed a year ago to transfer two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi’s administration insists the islands are Saudi, but the agreement sparked the largest anti-government street demonstrations since al-Sissi took office in 2014, when thousands took to the streets in April last year. Hundreds were detained, but were mostly released later.
The news conference was held just hours after a Cairo court ruled to block decisions by two courts, including the Supreme Administrative Court, to annul the agreement on the islands of Tiran and Sanafir.
Sunday’s ruling would be appealed on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction over the issue, according to lawyers opposed to the transfer of the islands.
“The executive authority is behind [the bill],” constitutional expert Essam al-Islamboly told the news conference, calling it a “constitutional crime.”
The dispute over the bill between the judiciary and parliament, a 596-seat chamber packed with al-Sisi supporters, could develop into a constitutional crisis.
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