GOE OFFICIALS OFFER REBUTTAL TO JUDGES' CLUB ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 001009 SIPDIS NSC STAFF FOR SINGH E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/19/2016 TAGS: PHUM PGOV KDEM KJUS EG SUBJECT: GOE OFFICIALS OFFER REBUTTAL TO JUDGES' CLUB ON IMMUNITY CONTROVERSY Classified by Counselor John Desrocher for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) In a February 19 meeting, senior Egyptian Justice Ministry officials strongly defended the recent move by the Public Prosecution to question four leaders of the Judges' Club, the group which functions as a professional association and lobbying group on behalf of Egypt's judges. ¶2. (C) Acting Assistant Minister of Justice Adel Fahmy, and Ministry Counselor Judge Hany Hanna Sedra (protect both), strongly rejected media characterizations that Judges Hisham Bestawisy, Ahmed Mekky, Mahmoud Mekky, and Mahmoud Khoudeiry had been stripped of their immunity in an "unprecedented" action. ¶3. (C) Fahmy asserted, "none of these judges have been stripped of their immunity...not at all...they are still immune from prosecution." He stated that the Public Prosecutor's office was investigating charges of fraud and malfeasance in the conduct of the fall's parliamentary elections. These four individuals had identified themselves, by making numerous charges in the press about electoral fraud and malfeasance, as potentially important witnesses, he asserted. ¶4. (C) It was in this context, he continued, that the Public Prosecution was seeking to question them. By law, judges can only be served a prosecutorial summons with the consent of Egypt's Supreme Judiciary Council, he stated. The Council's consent, in this case, he continued, did not in any way constitute a lifting of the judges' immunity from prosecution. ¶5. (C) Fahmy and Sedra added that such an act was "routine" - not the "unprecedented escalation" described in the media. "When I worked in the prosecutor's office, we used to do this all the time," Fahmy recollected, "...any time a judge became a party to an investigation." They added that they believed the four concerned judges had decided to make a controversy out of the matter "because they have their own political agendas" and were trying to make martyrs of themselves before Egyptian public opinion. ¶6. (C) Comment: The GOE's defense of the recent actions of the Supreme Judiciary Council and the Public Prosecution is plausible; it is strange that they have declined to offer this rebuttal in public. Their reticence is probably characteristic of the conservatism (and lack of public relations savvy) that pervades the GOE's law enforcement sector. Even if the GOE does eventually make this argument public, there will still be considerable skepticism on the Egyptian street about the government's commitment to investigate and rectify the fraud and malfeasance that marred the fall's parliamentary elections. End comment. RICCIARDONE