Saturday, March 18, 2006

Go Egypt!!!!

Are we finally witnessing the stirrings of an independent judiciary in the Middle East?!?! I don't want to make it appear that I am an expert on Egyptian affairs, or that I completely know the intricate details of the story I am about to present to you through this entry... but, it is definitely a glimmer of hope, so I'll put it up anyways.

an Al Jazeera article titled "Egypt judges take protest to the street" reports that

Egyptian judges are standing by colleagues summoned for questioning over comments on last year's elections.
....

They also voted against any concessions to the government on a draft law reorganizing the judiciary.
....
Dozens of demonstrators supported them. "Judges, judges, save us from tyranny," some of them chanted.

....


Sounds great, doesn' t it? Well... I am waiting for a post from the Sand Monkey or Stacey (who appears to be in Egypt) about this event to see what's really going on. But heck... I desperately hope this initiative is genuine.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice people these judges! When regular citizens are being treated like merde without any rights for decades after decades, that's okay, but when four of theirs have their immunity lifted for mere questionning then, oh no, stop, not fair, we protest!!!! Really nice judges, lucky Egyptians!!

Raja said...

hummingbird... I say judiciary that stands up against the president or the executive in general is better than a judiciary that does not. Maybe next time these guys will make a decision regarding a case that is based on their own judgement as opposed to Mubarak's.

Again, standing up to Mubarak is definitely a good step

Anonymous said...

These judges are the same as our Hizballah, you mess with the rest of the populace, eh, who cares, you mess with us, DON'T YOU ALLAH DARN DARE!

Anonymous said...

Once again, both Raja and hummingbirdie-num-num (above) are right. I agree with Raja that it should be expected of judges to have some spine, but hummingbird hit the nail on the head. Let's not romantacize this situation a little too much. They are protecting a certain agenda, and not a concept.

Lahoud supports Aon for next president and calls for early parlimantary elections.

FGA