Judges take Mursi’s law into their own hands

Egyptian judges have rebelled against an edict by President Mohammed Mursi exempting his decrees from judicial review, denouncing it as an attack on judicial independence and calling for a judges' strike.

The condemnation came from numerous organisations. The Supreme Council of the Judiciary, a top judicial body, called the decree ''an unprecedented attack on judicial independence'' and urged the President to rescind it; while the Judges Club, called for a countrywide strike by courts. The leader of the national lawyers' association endorsed the strike call.

A judicial strike would be the steepest escalation yet in a political struggle between the country's new Islamist leaders and the institutions of the old authoritarian government over the drafting of a new constitution. Those tensions have flared since Mr Mursi announced his decree on Thursday, saying he acted to prevent the courts from dissolving the Constitutional Assembly, as they had dissolved an earlier assembly and the parliament.

He said his expanded powers, which he announced a day after he won international praise for brokering a ceasefire in Gaza, would last only until the new constitution was ratified.

The judges, all of whom were appointed by Egypt's ousted dictator, Hosni Mubarak, joined political leaders in opposing the decree. Because the court dissolved the parliament, the judiciary was the last check on his power, and critics called the decree a step towards autocracy.

State media reported that judges and prosecutors had already declared a strike in Alexandria, and there were other reports of planned walkouts in Qulubiya and Beheira, but those could not be confirmed.

There were small street protests outside the court building where the judges met. A coalition of disparate opposition leaders, including the former United Nations diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei and three other former Egyptian presidential candidates, demanded the cancellation of the decree.

The strike call by the Judges Club, led in recent years by a clique loyal to Mubarak and opposed to the Islamists, followed a vote at a more representative assembly of about 1000 of the club's members. They urged courts to suspend all activities except those vital to citizens, and it was unclear how individual courts might respond.

As the Judges Club met in the High Court building, the small crowd of protesters outside chanted that Egypt's judges were ''a red line''.

Inside, the Mubarak-appointed chief prosecutor, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, told a crowd of cheering colleagues that he rejected Mr Mursi's attempt to sack him. He called the presidential decree ''null and void'' and warned of a ''systematic campaign against the country's institutions in general and the judiciary in particular''.

The human rights lawyer Khaled Ali said he had filed one of several lawsuits asking the courts to attempt to overturn Mr Mursi's decree.

The battle was triggered by the year-end deadline for the Constitutional Assembly chosen last northern spring to draft a new constitution. There had been rumours that the Supreme Constitutional Court was poised to dissolve the assembly in a ruling next Sunday.

The main courts had already dissolved both an earlier Constitutional Assembly and the parliament. All three bodies were dominated by Islamists, who prevailed in the post Mubarak elections, and many of the senior judges harbour deep fears of an Islamist takeover.