A former Judges Club chief criticized the head of the Cairo Court of Appeals on a television program Tuesday, saying he will be punished for all his deeds and accusing him of smearing the judiciary’s reputation.
Abdel Moez Ibrahim, head of the appeals court, has received criticism over the NGO funding case in which authorities sent 43 NGO workers to court on charges of receiving illegal funds. In a controversial move last month, the court lifted a travel ban on the foreign suspects involved in the case.
Zakareya Abdel Aziz, the former Judges Club chief, said in a phone call with the “Al-Ashera Masa’an” talk show on the privately owned Dream TV channel that Ibrahim had willingly agreed to quit his post during a meeting of the court’s general assembly.
“The Supreme Judicial Council should take a serious stance toward him,” Abdel Aziz said.
Ibrahim has denied resigning from his post and the management of the court’s financial, technical and administrative affairs. He said he is still the court’s president with all powers authorized for him by the court’s general assembly at the beginning of the judicial year.
Abdel Aziz said about 900 judges comprise the general assembly and cannot all gather whenever a decision is made. Each court’s president is delegated on behalf of the rest, he said.
Abdel Aziz said the general assembly will punish Ibrahim and that the case will continue. He said if Ibrahim wasn’t punished now, he will be referred to retirement on 30 June.
“Head of the Supreme Judicial Council Hossam al-Gheriany is a witness to this,” he said, adding, “Abdel Moez can deny it as he wants. He is defending his post and position at the Presidential Elections Commission.”
“We demand him to be stopped from performing his duties now, because such violations by him … are considered crimes that should bring him to trial. But before trial, he should be stopped from resuming his work so that this will not affect investigations currently taking place,” Abdel Aziz said.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
