Dozens of lawyers protest decision to refer 9 colleagues to trial over 2015 dispute

Dozens of lawyers stood in silent protest outside a North Giza courthouse on Sunday to oppose the referral of nine lawyers to criminal trial over a 2015 dispute, while the North Giza branch of the Lawyers Syndicate called for a partial strike starting Tuesday.

Having recently revived investigations into the 2015 incident, the North Giza Public Prosecution referred the nine lawyers on February 1 to criminal trial on charges of gathering and disrupting the work of a court, several members of the Lawyers Syndicate branch told Mada Masr.

One of the defendants, Ramadan Kishk, who is a member of the North Giza syndicate council, told Mada Masr that more than 100 lawyers, most of them young, stood in silence outside the court on Sunday in protest of the referral decision. The branch opted for a silent vigil as it waited for approval from authorities for a more vocal demonstration, Kishk said.

Kishk was among several of the defendants who visited the public prosecutor's office on Saturday to demand that the prosecution reverse its decision. However, they were told the case was out of the prosecution’s hands now that it had been referred to trial. In response, the syndicate branch called for a partial strike across all North Giza courts beginning on Tuesday, during which lawyers would refrain from paying court fees as an initial step.

In the referral decision, the Public Prosecution charged the nine lawyers with using force against the judges of the court’s appellate misdemeanor chamber for the Imbaba and Ausim district, its secretary, bailiff and police personnel on duty. The prosecution alleges that, during an April 30, 2015 court session, the defendants lined up in the courtroom and in front of the deliberation room and chanted insults against the judiciary with the goal of preventing the court from convening. The lawyers are also accused of stealing the court’s ledger for the day.

Three members of the syndicate branch who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity each disputed the version of events put forward by the North Giza prosecution. They said that during a court session on the day in question — April 30, 2015 — a lawyer commented on a decision by the head of the appellate misdemeanor chamber to detain a defendant, saying, “Have mercy, your honor. He’s an old man.” The judge considered the comment an insult to the court and ordered the lawyer detained.

The detention order angered the other lawyers present at the session and they requested that the syndicate branch intervene. This prompted Mahmoud al-Dakhly, then-chair of the branch and a current member of the Lawyers Syndicate Council, along with Kishk and seven other lawyers to meet with the judge in the deliberation room, hoping to resolve the issue. However, the judge and the lawyers argued during the meeting, escalating to the point that the lawyers requested the court’s recusal and decided to boycott the judge’s sessions.

According to one of the lawyers, the judge was transferred to another chamber soon after the incident, which the lawyers presumed would be the end of the matter. In 2017, the lawyers learned that the judge had filed a case against them, but no decisions were made until November 2021, when Dakhly, Kishk and the others were summoned to testify ahead of their referral to trial by the Public Prosecution on February 1.

Maha Abu Bakr, a member of the front for the defense of Lawyers Syndicate independence, told Mada Masr that the provisions of the law regulating the profession guarantee that lawyers cannot be penalized for what they say when defending a case or otherwise during the practice of their profession.

For his part, syndicate council deputy Omar Hareedy told Mada Masr that he will meet on Thursday with Justice Minister Omar Marwan to discuss the possibility of intervening to end the crisis amicably and freeze the referral decision. 

Another syndicate council member, Abu Bakr Dawah, told Mada Masr that syndicate chair Ragaei Attiya hopes to end the issue through reconciliation with the judge outside of the courts, but intends to lead the defense team for the nine accused lawyers if reconciliation fails.