The ACIJLP condemns the threat of the right of Egyptian judges to life

 

Cairo, 24^th December 2012   

 

The ACIJLP condemns the threat of the right of Egyptian judges to life

 

The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession (ACIJLP) expresses its deep condemnation over the threat of the right of Egyptian judges to life and their exposure to the practices of intimidation and prosecution, threatening their right to physical integrity and their exposing them to risk.

The ACIJLP calls upon the Egyptian authorities in Egypt to undertake its part in securing the role of justice, the courts and judges clubs in Egypt, and bears the Egyptian authorities the responsibility of the physical integrity of judges and not to expose them to the risk due to the performance of their profession, or to exercise any kind of pressure on them or in appropriate intervention in judicial proceedings.

The ACIJLP expresses its concern and full condemnation over the exposure of Judge Ahmed AL-Zend, head of the Egyptian Judges Club to severe attack that threaten his right to bodily integrity on Sunday 23 December 2012.

The ACIJLP believes that the criminal conduct in which the head of the Judges Club is exposed to, came as a result of the exercise of the above mentioned judge to his right to freedom of opinion and expression, his adherence to the principle of the independence of judiciary and his rejection of the repeated attempts by the Egyptian Executive Authority to breach the independence of the judiciary.

The ACIJLP condemns this criminal attempt because it felt that it comes in the context of a range of abuses and violations suffered by Egyptian judges and the judiciary in general at this time. One of the manifestations of these violations, for example, but not limited to, the Constitutional Declaration issued on Thursday, 22^ndNovember 2012 which attempts to undermine the judiciary, in addition to the siege of the Supreme constitutional Court on Sunday 2^nd November 2012 and attempts to attack and prevent the President of the Court to enter the seat of the Court to prevent him from the performance of his profession on Sunday, 16^th December 2012.

The ACIJLP believes that this type of practices should be rejected, whether in the form of legislation or constitutional declarations or criminal behavior because it put the president and the Egyptian government in the position of breaching the  international conventions and commitments relevant to the independence of the judiciary, in particular UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, in addition to threatening situations of justice in Egypt in a manner that undermines human rights and freedoms.

The ACIJLP calls upon the President and the Egyptian authorities to play its part in ensuring the physical integrity of the judges and their right to life, as well as taking legislative and administrative measures to ensure the independence judicial authority.