The Safety and Development Party, the political arm of the Islamic Jihad Organization, demanded that President Mohamed Morsy refer the judges who are boycotting the referendum on the constitution and are abstaining from work to investigation and that he suspend their salaries.

The party on Tuesday accused the judges of carrying out a colonial and Zionist scheme to delay stability and destroy the state in order to secure the Zionist entity from the rising Islamic giant, as it said.

Party Secretary General Mohamed Abu Samra said he is filing a lawsuit against the judges. “They are hostile to the Islamic current, and they reject the president’s legitimacy,” he said.

Several courts and judges went into strike after Morsy issued the controversial new constitutional declaration on 22 November. The declaration immunizes Morsy’s decisions from being challenged before courts.

Several judges have announced they will boycott supervising the referendum on the new constitution, after the Judges Club called on them to do so. However, the State Council and the Supreme Judicial Council announced Monday that those judges would participate in the process.  

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm