MP calls to oust attorney general are illegal

A senior Egyptian judge has criticized MPs who have requested the dismissal of the country’s attorney general, stressing that Parliament should not interfere with the judiciary. “No one can dismiss the attorney general,” Ahmed al-Zend, the chief of the Judges Club, said at a press conference Monday. Zend warned of a brewing conflict between the judiciary and the legislature. “This is dangerous,” he told the prosecutors attending the conference. He also criticized the MPs who say the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak is a farce. “Judges and prosecutors take no instructions or orders from anyone,” he said, adding that lawyers of the plaintiffs were the ones who had caused a three-month delay in the trial. Egypt’s public prosecution has been under fire for activists over its alleged mismanagement and delinquency of cases since the early 2011 uprising, especially those involving officials from the former Mubarak regime. Calls to remove Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud from his post have coincided with the recent public uproar over violence at a Port Said football match last Wednesday that left at least 74 dead. That incident also sparked demands for a faster time table for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to hand over power to a civilian president. Cairo - Al masry al youm