Justice Ministry sends ‘several’ judges to disciplinary hearings for suspected Brotherhood ties

Justice Minister Mahfouz Saber referred several judges to disciplinary hearings on Wednesday for their alleged connection to the banned Judges for Egypt group.

The government has accused Judges for Egypt of having direct ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was declared an illegal terrorist organization in December 2013. But members have identified themselves as an independent body unaffiliated to any political parties or movements.

Judge Sameh Sayed, the deputy president of the Egyptian State Lawsuits Authority, announced the disciplinary measures to the media. In remarks to the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA), he did not state the number of judges who will stand before the disciplinary board, nor did he say when the hearings would take place.

The Justice Ministry is authorized to refer judges suspected of political bias to disciplinary hearings based on Decree 1691/2015, according to Sayed.

The ministry has availed itself of that decree to send dozens of judges, the majority of whom suspected of being sympathetic to the Brotherhood, to disciplinary hearings over the past few months. The hearings have most often led to the judges’ dismissal, demotion or forced retirement.

On March 14, 41 judges were pushed into retirement after they were found to be engaged in political activities, or supportive of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Shortly thereafter, 12 rights NGOs issued a statement  denouncing the measures as punitive.

These disciplinary actions send "a message to judges to withhold their opinions, except when expressing approval for the current political administration,” the statement argued.

On December 4, 2014, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi forced another eight judges into retirement on similar grounds following disciplinary hearings.