Insurance companies to pay out LE4 million to families of dead judges

Insurance companies are to release LE4 million in compensation for the families of judges killed while overseeing the recent parliamentary elections, state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported Friday.

Two judges died last Tuesday, along with four policemen and one civilian, in a terrorist attack on a Arish hotel in North Sinai where judges supervising the second phase of parliamentary elections were staying. 

Conflicting statements from judicial sources in various newspapers since then have disputed whether or not judges supervising the electoral process were granted life insurance worth LE1 million.

A member of the Administrative Prosecution, who participated in supervising the elections, told Mada Masr that the insurance payments were covered by judges themselves and not by the state. 

According to the source, some judicial organizations decided to insure their members ahead of the parliamentary elections and the installments had been deducted from their salaries.

The head of the North Cairo unit of Egypt Insurance told Al-Ahram that the Egypt Judges’ Club and the State Council had both created insurance certificates for their 6,000 members, totaling LE6 billion. The company said it would pay LE3 million in compensation for the families of one of the victims of the Arish attack, as well as two judges who died in car accidents in the first phase of elections last month.

Iskan Insurance meanwhile told Al-Ahram newspaper that it was also processing LE1 million pounds for the family of the second Arish victim, who was a member of the State Council, as part of the certificate the council made for its 2,472 members supervising the elections. 

Following the Arish attack, Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zend denied that judges killed during the elections were insured for one million pounds, asserting that judges are treated like other citizens. 

Iskan Insurance clarified to Al-Ahram that the insurance certificate for State Council members covered natural deaths, terrorism, political violence and other accidents that occurred from the moment the judge left his house for election duties until he returned.