Some 10,000 lawyers filed complaints with the attorney-general on Sunday against Ahmed el-Zend, head of the Egyptian Judges Club; club board member Ahmed Zahran; and Abdel Moneim el-Seheimy, head of the Tanta Judges Club, accusing them of “insulting” their colleagues.
The move came in response to similar complaints filed by 800 judges against Hamdi Khalifa, head of the Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate, and former syndicate board member Montasser el-Zayat, accusing them of slander and inciting riots inside courtrooms.
Clashes erupted between lawyers on the one hand and judges and prosecutors on the other after two lawyers were sentenced to five years each in prison for assaulting the chief prosecutor of the Nile Delta city of Tanta last week.
Khalifa was quoted as saying that Parliamentary Speaker Fathi Sorour was planning to chair a meeting between him and el-Zend in an attempt to resolve the crisis.
El-Zend, for his part, said he would ask President Hosni Mubarak to intervene personally if the meeting failed to resolve the problem.
Meanwhile, lawyers ended their sit-in protest in several court buildings, limiting their protest to the Tanta Judicial Complex. They also praised the security services for not interfering in the dispute.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
