The Lawyers Syndicate’s freedoms committee has officially suggested to the military council that it should provide lawyers who are certified at the Court of Cassation to supervise the upcoming parliamentary elections in the place of judges.

“We would do it for free, whereas the judges would cost the state some LE300 million,” said Tarek Ibrahim, coordinator of the syndicate’s freedoms committee.

“This is nonsense,” said Justice Minister Abdel Aziz al-Guindy, commenting on the lawyers’ proposal.

Observers consider the proposal an escalation of the crisis between lawyers and judges over the draft law on judicial authority.

The lawyers called for an emergency general assembly on Tuesday to form a committee of senior members to administer the syndicate, after the judicial committee that was administering it suspended its mission.

Also, the syndicate’s political affairs and Islamic Sharia committees issued statements denouncing the judges who fired bullets into the air to scare lawyers protesting at the Supreme Judicial Court on Friday.

The statements reminded the judges of Ahmed al-Zend, president of the Judges Club, who lamented the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, and of the judges who rigged the 2005 and 2010 elections.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf is holding a meeting to discuss the ongoing crisis.

Translated from the Arabic Edition