Egypt’s Islamist groups postponed the recently planned Friday demonstrations

Islamists protests in Cairo, 19 April 2013

Egypt’s Islamist groups including one of the most powerful, Muslim Brotherhood, decided to postpone the demonstrations calling for “purge of the judiciary” planned for Friday, 26 April. The groups stated about this decision in their joint statement released on Thursday.

We would remind here that Muslim Brotherhood and several Islamist political parties and groups and also their supporters gathered on Friday, 19 April, in front of Cairo High Court and in downtown Cairo to protest against what they call corruption of Egypt’s judiciary. Their main demands have been “purging” the state’s judiciary from the corrupt elements and the representatives of the old regime whom they accused of failing to bring to justice all those responsible for the killing of the protesters during the revolution and also for corruption charges.

The rally was attacked by the rivals of the Islamists what resulted in the violent clashes with numerous injured.

The Islamists also press Shura Council to appoint the new amended judicial authority law which has already became extremely controversial document strongly criticized by the opposition forces and by Egypt’s judges as well.

The unofficial elected judiciary body, Egypt’s Judges Club, made a statement recently regarding the emergency meeting amid the deep judicial crisis.

Islamist groups in their turn have announced they are planning to hold another Friday demonstration for “purging” the state’s judiciary which was expected to express the same key demands as the previous one.

Islamist forces protesting in Cairo for "purging" the judiciary

The groups announced their participation in the Friday demonstration included Muslim Brotherhood, from which Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsy hails, Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, Salafist Asala Party, Wasat Party and others.

But in the joint statement issued by the Islamist groups on Thursday, they announced that the demonstration is to be postponed due to the possibility of some changes such as the ongoing review of the judicial authority law by Egypt’s Shura Council. The statement also says this decision was taken in order to calm the situation during the discussion of the judicial law and its amendments.