After an extended session, the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), presided by Judge Maher al-Beheiri decided this evening to suspend President Mohamed Mursi’s earlier presidential decree to reinstate the People’s Assembly (PA), the lower house of Egypt’s Parliament. On 14 June
After an extended session, the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), presided by Judge Maher al-Beheiri decided this evening to suspend President Mohamed Mursi’s earlier presidential decree to reinstate the People’s Assembly (PA), the lower house of Egypt’s Parliament. On 14 June, the Islamist-majority PA had been dissolved by order of the then ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), to enforce the SCC ruling that the elections which voted in a third of its members were unconstitutional, rendering the entire PA invalid.
This morning in Cairo, the PA convened upon the order of the President.
Final and binding
Hours after Mursi issued the presidential decree which reinstated the assembly last Sunday, SCAF withdrew most security forces from the parliament building.
Several liberal and leftist MPs—some one-third of the PA members—boycotted the session. MPs for the Wafd Party (38), the Egyptian Democratic Party (17), the Free Egyptians (7), the Revolution Continues (7) and the Tagammu Party (3) had received orders from their respective party leaderships not to attend assembly meetings.
The PA decided to contest the SCC’s ruling before the Court of Cassation, a decision which raised eyebrows since the latter is a lower court; the SCC is the highest judiciary authority in Egypt, and the only body assigned with monitoring the constitutionality of laws.
In the meantime, thousands of demonstrators gathered in Nasr City in Cairo to oppose Mursi’s decree, while thousands of Islamists demonstrated in Tahrir Square in a show of support for Mursi.
The SCC insisted on Monday that its ruling to invalidate the PA was final and binding, setting up a potential showdown with Mursi. The SCAF, meanwhile, delivered a thinly veiled warning to the president, saying it trusted that all state institutions will respect the constitutional declarations issued by the military during its 16 months in power since the fall of Hosni Mubarak. The statement said the military would continue to support “legitimacy, the constitution and the law”.
Excluding non-Islamists
The announcement of Mursi’s decree Sunday afternoon had the effect of a bombshell. The first response of almost all who heard the news was one of staggering disbelief. Then the torrents of anger—or elation in the case of Islamists—broke loose.
Many towns in Egypt saw demonstrations that cheered for Mursi. In Beni Sweif, some 100km south of Cairo, the demonstrators chanted: “We want it Islamist, Islamist; Mursi is an A1 president.”
Copts felt a general sense of severe disappointment. The Maspero Youth Union (MYU) issued a statement in which it said Mursi had committed a crime that was tantamount to treason by breaking the oath he had taken before the SCC to defend the constitution and the law.
According to coordinator-general of the MYU Andrawus Uweida, Mursi had, by throwing to the wind a court ruling against the Islamist-majority PA, given precedence to his Islamist loyalties and gone back on his promise to be a president for all Egyptians. The MYU saw in this an overt threat to exclude all non-Islamist forces from the political field. By instating a legislative body that would pass the laws needed to ensure the dominion of the Islamist stream, Mursi would be setting the stage for a one-party system in Egypt, that single party being an Islamist one.
The MYU said it would take the matter to court, since the president, in his capacity as a public servant, had committed the misdemeanour of refraining from executing a court order. Another court case against Mursi was also raised by the Coalition of Egypt’s Copts, disputing Mursi’s right to annul a court order.
A number of rights organisations issued a joint statement in which they criticised the Mursi decree, and alleged it placed the country on the route to anarchy.
36-hour deadline
The harshest and most vociferous Mursi criticism, however, was saved—predictably—for the judicial establishment.
The head of the Lawyer’s Syndicate, Sameh Ashour, said that the president possessed no right whatsoever to right to annul a court ruling. He called upon the seculars, liberals, patriots, and judiciary to firmly confront what he termed “the assault against the judiciary”. This assault, he stressed, was not only against the judiciary, but was against the country in its entirety. “The independence of the judiciary,” Ashour said, “does not only safeguard the judiciary, but the entire nation.”
Gamal Khattab who heads the commission for defence of of freedoms at the Lawyers’ Syndicate, joined the Beheira branch syndicate’s secretary-general Haitham Tayseer, in a court case against Mursi. Mursi, they alleged, had violated the law which stipulates that a public servant who exploit his authority to halt the execution of court or government orders should be penalised by imprisonment or expulsion from his post.
In Alexandria, the board of the Judge’s Club—the representative body of the judges—convened and decided to suspend courts indefinitely until Mursi revokes his decree which, according to the judges, reflects a total collapse of the constitutional State. “It is a constitutional disaster,” said Judge Mohamed Agwa, head of the Alexandria Judges Club.
36-hour deadline
Monday evening witnessed a wide convention of several judicial bodies at the Judges Club in Cairo. Participating were representatives of the Lawyers Syndicate, Judges Clubs from all over Egypt, the administrative prosecution, the State Council which is the highest administrative court in Egypt, and the State Court Authority. They all expressed their anger at Mursi’s decision, and decided to grant the president a 36-hour time-limit to revoke it.
The participants asked the president to apologise to the Egyptian people, the lawyers and judicial authorities for insulting a court ruling and the judicial authority.
Judge Ahmed al-Zend, head of the Cairo Judges Club, said that if no response comes from Mursi before the 36-hour deadline expires, the judiciary will resort to harsher and fiercer measures. “We call upon the president to go back to his senses,” he said.
“Courts will be suspended,” said the head of the Cairo Lawyers Syndicate Mohamed Osman, since they cannot implement justice based on legislation by an invalid parliament.
There was wide criticism during the convention of what was described as the flagrant US interference in Egypt’s internal affairs.
Judge Hamdy Yassin, head of the Judges Club at the State Council, described the day Mursi issued the decree as a “black, dismal day”. Judge Ahmed Khalifa of the Administrative Court, said that the problem went beyond the issuance of a decree by the president; it constituted a crime of refraining from implementing a court ruling.
Reported by Nader Shukry, Nasser Sobhy, Hanan Fikry, Adel Mounir, Samira al-Mazahy from Alexandria, Tereza Hanna from Minya, and Girgis Waheeb from Beni Sweif
WATANI International
10 July 2012