Demonstration in Egypt Is Quieted by Force
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
The New York Times
May 18, 2006
CAIRO, May 17 — Riot police beat and arrested hundreds of demonstrators today who had gathered to support two judges facing disciplinary charge for charging publicly that parliamentary elections were fixed.
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the opposition groups taking part in the protest, said that 180 of its members were injured and more than 500 arrested in the crackdown, news services reported.
The Associated Press quoted a photographer, Tara Todras-Whitehill, who said that thugs backed by riot police chased one group of about 800 protesters down the street and beat those who fell behind.
"I saw at least 20 people being beaten with fists and kicks and short clubs," she said.
The disciplinary panel moved to punish one of the judges, Hisham Bastawisi, by ordering that he be denied his next promotion, even though Mr. Bastawisi was unable to attend, having suffered a heart attack earlier in the week. The other judge, Mahmoud Mekki, was not punished.
The case was one of two being decided in separate courtrooms in downtown Cairo in cases that have called into question President Hosni Mubarak's promise to bring democratic practices to Egypt.
In the other proceeding, an appeals court refused to hear the case of Ayman Nour, the second-place presidential candidate sentenced to five years in prison.
Mr. Nour was arrested on charges of forging signatures to create his political party. The court's refusal dashed hopes of his wife and lawyer, who said they had detected a positive shift in the government's tone toward Mr. Nour in recent days .
Far more international attention, however, has been focused on the Egyptian government's war with nearly 7,000 judges and their supporters. The United States and the European Union have condemned Mr. Mubarak's government for beating and detaining demonstrators who support the judges' call for independence of the courts and for the right to oversee all elections.
Even while Mr. Mubarak and his inner circle have demonstrated that they are reluctant to appear to respond to foreign pressure, he faces another potentially embarrassing moment on Thursday between demonstrators and the police, a problem magnified because Egypt will serve as the host of the World Economic Forum, which begins Saturday.
Egypt's treatment of the judges and the demonstrators, its reauthorization of an emergency law and its decision to postpone local elections for two years all threaten to take attention away from a forum that officials hoped would highlight this country's efforts at economic reform. Recent decisions in Egypt, from arresting a popular blogger to postponing local elections, present a problem for the White House. Not only do they contradict President Bush's call for spreading democracy, but they complicate the administration's effort to maintain the nearly $2 billion a year that Egypt receives in military and development aid in the face of some calls from Congress to re-evaluate the package.The judges' demands have been widely seen as a direct challenge to the ability of the governing National Democratic Party's ability to maintain power and guarantee that its handpicked nominee will replace Mr. Mubarak, who turned 78 this month and has ruled Egypt for 25 years.
The call to have completely independent oversight of elections comes at a time when the governing party has appeared weak and divided, the president's popularity is low and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood is strong and popular. Many supporters and opponents of Mr. Mubarak are discussing who will be the next president, even while the subject remains officially taboo.
"If the judges succeeded it would show how weak the N.D.P. is," said Salama Ahmed Salama, a political analyst and longtime columnist for the semiofficial daily Al Ahram. "It may call into question all those figures who govern us."
The speculation over succession has increased because while the government made it impossible for independent opposition parties or political leaders, like Mr. Nour, to build a following, the president's son, Gamal Mubarak, 42, has taken on an increasingly visible and important role in the party and the country. He recently made a private visit to the White House, where he was greeted by President Bush and met with Vice President Dick Cheney and the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley.
The younger Mubarak has repeatedly said he has no intention to run for president, but his denials have been greeted skeptically.
Judge Mekki said in an interview that a friend inside the National Democratic Party had warned him that its leadership viewed the fight with the judges as one over succession.
The government has said the judges' dispute is an intra-judicial problem and has nothing to do with the government or the of succession issue. Muhammad Kamal, a member of the governing party and an ally of the younger Mubarak, said the party had not even begun to discuss the issue.
For more than 20 years, Egypt's judges have called for independence from the executive branch. But the judges' demands became of central concern to the governing party when the Constitutional Court ruled in 2000 that all elections must be supervised by judges. Since then judges have complained that they are allowed to monitor only polling places, but not vote counting.
The government plans to submit a proposed bill addressing some of the judges' concerns to Parliament in the next few days, said an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the topic. But the official said judicial oversight of elections was not even on the table.
Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting for this article from Cairo and John O'Neil contributed reporting from New York.
The New York Times
May 18, 2006
CAIRO, May 17 — Riot police beat and arrested hundreds of demonstrators today who had gathered to support two judges facing disciplinary charge for charging publicly that parliamentary elections were fixed.
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the opposition groups taking part in the protest, said that 180 of its members were injured and more than 500 arrested in the crackdown, news services reported.
The Associated Press quoted a photographer, Tara Todras-Whitehill, who said that thugs backed by riot police chased one group of about 800 protesters down the street and beat those who fell behind.
"I saw at least 20 people being beaten with fists and kicks and short clubs," she said.
The disciplinary panel moved to punish one of the judges, Hisham Bastawisi, by ordering that he be denied his next promotion, even though Mr. Bastawisi was unable to attend, having suffered a heart attack earlier in the week. The other judge, Mahmoud Mekki, was not punished.
The case was one of two being decided in separate courtrooms in downtown Cairo in cases that have called into question President Hosni Mubarak's promise to bring democratic practices to Egypt.
In the other proceeding, an appeals court refused to hear the case of Ayman Nour, the second-place presidential candidate sentenced to five years in prison.
Mr. Nour was arrested on charges of forging signatures to create his political party. The court's refusal dashed hopes of his wife and lawyer, who said they had detected a positive shift in the government's tone toward Mr. Nour in recent days .
Far more international attention, however, has been focused on the Egyptian government's war with nearly 7,000 judges and their supporters. The United States and the European Union have condemned Mr. Mubarak's government for beating and detaining demonstrators who support the judges' call for independence of the courts and for the right to oversee all elections.
Even while Mr. Mubarak and his inner circle have demonstrated that they are reluctant to appear to respond to foreign pressure, he faces another potentially embarrassing moment on Thursday between demonstrators and the police, a problem magnified because Egypt will serve as the host of the World Economic Forum, which begins Saturday.
Egypt's treatment of the judges and the demonstrators, its reauthorization of an emergency law and its decision to postpone local elections for two years all threaten to take attention away from a forum that officials hoped would highlight this country's efforts at economic reform. Recent decisions in Egypt, from arresting a popular blogger to postponing local elections, present a problem for the White House. Not only do they contradict President Bush's call for spreading democracy, but they complicate the administration's effort to maintain the nearly $2 billion a year that Egypt receives in military and development aid in the face of some calls from Congress to re-evaluate the package.The judges' demands have been widely seen as a direct challenge to the ability of the governing National Democratic Party's ability to maintain power and guarantee that its handpicked nominee will replace Mr. Mubarak, who turned 78 this month and has ruled Egypt for 25 years.
The call to have completely independent oversight of elections comes at a time when the governing party has appeared weak and divided, the president's popularity is low and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood is strong and popular. Many supporters and opponents of Mr. Mubarak are discussing who will be the next president, even while the subject remains officially taboo.
"If the judges succeeded it would show how weak the N.D.P. is," said Salama Ahmed Salama, a political analyst and longtime columnist for the semiofficial daily Al Ahram. "It may call into question all those figures who govern us."
The speculation over succession has increased because while the government made it impossible for independent opposition parties or political leaders, like Mr. Nour, to build a following, the president's son, Gamal Mubarak, 42, has taken on an increasingly visible and important role in the party and the country. He recently made a private visit to the White House, where he was greeted by President Bush and met with Vice President Dick Cheney and the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley.
The younger Mubarak has repeatedly said he has no intention to run for president, but his denials have been greeted skeptically.
Judge Mekki said in an interview that a friend inside the National Democratic Party had warned him that its leadership viewed the fight with the judges as one over succession.
The government has said the judges' dispute is an intra-judicial problem and has nothing to do with the government or the of succession issue. Muhammad Kamal, a member of the governing party and an ally of the younger Mubarak, said the party had not even begun to discuss the issue.
For more than 20 years, Egypt's judges have called for independence from the executive branch. But the judges' demands became of central concern to the governing party when the Constitutional Court ruled in 2000 that all elections must be supervised by judges. Since then judges have complained that they are allowed to monitor only polling places, but not vote counting.
The government plans to submit a proposed bill addressing some of the judges' concerns to Parliament in the next few days, said an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the topic. But the official said judicial oversight of elections was not even on the table.
Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting for this article from Cairo and John O'Neil contributed reporting from New York.
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