Egypt’s Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki resigns

Ahmed Mekki, Egypt's Justice Minister

Egyptian Minister of Justice Ahmed Mekki has officially offered his resignation and issued the resignation’s letter on Sunday, 21 April, according to the sources inside of the Justice Ministry.

This move by Ahmed Mekki came on the wave of the major protests organized by the Islamist forces and calling for the “cleaning” of the judicial system and also after Mohamed Morsy’s Saturday’s speech which included some remarks regarding the possible reshuffle in the government.

It’s also worth mentioning that thousands of the Islamist political parties and groups and their supporters have gathered last Friday, 19 April, in downtown Cairo to demand the “purge” of Egyptian judicial system and “cleaning” of it from the corrupt figures from the previous regime. The demonstrations of the Muslim Brotherhood supporters have been attacked by their rivals protesting against what they call “Brotherhoodisation” of Egypt’s state’s institutions.

In addition to that the Islamist political parties and MPs are also pressing Shura Council (Upper House of Egypt’s Parliament responsible for legislation on the current stage) to amend the judiciary law in order to renew the judiciary. These amendments have been strongly criticized by the Muslim Brotherhood’s rivals, including the proposed reducing of the retirement age for the judges from the present 70 to 60.

Egypt’s Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki has also criticized these amendments and the proposed judiciary law several times, as he also expressed the critic of the recent decisions made by Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsy, especially the decisions regarding the judicial system, such as dismissal of Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, the prosecutor-general, and appointing of the new one, Talaat Abdullah.

According to the news sources the resignation’s letter of Ahmed Mekki states that he faced the critic from the oppositional forces and recently the critic comes also form the Muslim Brotherhood forces, so he decided to resign under such circumstances. He also condemned the attempts of the Shura Council MPs and Islamist forces to amend the judicial law.