The former vice president of the Court of Cassation, Mahmoud Mekky, on Sunday became the first civilian vice president of the country since the July 1952 Revolution.
Mekky rose to prominence during 2005 to 2006 when he, along with his brother Ahmed Mekky — the current justice minister — and former presidential candidate Hesham al-Bastawisi led judges’ demonstrations in downtown Cairo to denounce the rigging of the 2005 parliamentary elections.
Mekky first graduated from the Police Academy, after which he became a Central Security Forces officer. He later obtained a bachelor’s degree in law before joining the Public Prosecution. He accelerated through the ranks to become vice president of the Court of Cassation.
Starting in the mid-1980s, Mekky became involved with a bloc of senior judges promoting judicial independence and led by Judge Yahia al-Refaie, then-president of the Judges Club. In 1986, the club held its first conference on justice, when the Mekky brothers joined forces with others calling for courts’ independence from the executive authority, as well as referring the responsibility for judicial inspection to the Supreme Judicial Council.
In 1992, Mekky and Bastawisi led a strike by the independence block to protest the arbitrary suspension of two fellow judges. The action lasted for 25 days and ended when the Supreme Judicial Council and then-Justice Minister Farouq Saif al-Nasr yielded to demands to reinstate the suspended judges and to subject them to transparent investigations.
In 2005, Mekky headed the central control room for the parliamentary elections, which was located at the Judges Club. From there, he observed several abuses against judges, instances of electoral forgery and, most dramatically, the complicity of judges from certain constituencies. Therefore, assisted by Bastawisi, he prepared a blacklist of the judges involved in forgery.
In response, several judges filed complaints to former Public Prosecutor and Justice Minister Mahmoud Abul Leil, who, in an interview with independent daily Al-Shorouk, said ousted President Hosni Mubarak personally instructed him to refer Mekky and Bastawisi to a disciplinary trial, which later proved them innocent.
At the High Court trial session, several prominent lawyers pleaded on behalf of the pair, including former presidential candidate Mohamed Selim al-Awa. The court witnessed mass demonstrations by Muslim Brotherhood supporters in solidarity with the judges on trial.
Following acquittal, Bastawisi and Mekky moved to Kuwait for a long and apparently voluntary transfer to steer out of the political scene during Mubarak’s last years in office.
After Mubarak’s ouster during the 25 January revolution, Mekky’s name surfaced as a potential nominee for the post of Alexandria governor. The Brotherhood had considered fielding him as presidential candidate before opting for Khairat al-Shater, the group’s deputy supreme guide, and later Morsy.
