Egypt's latest political crisis grew to a new high when the country's top court joined a judicial rebellion against President Mohammed Morsi by suspending a hearing to examine the legality of the nation's Islamist-dominated constituent assembly.
The decision came after Morsi's supporters prevented the country's Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) from convening on Sunday to give the ruling on the legality of the body that drafted a new constitution up for a referendum. Calling it a "psychological assassination" of the court, SCC decided to join Egypt's highest appeals court and its sister lower court who were already on an indefinite strike against what they call the president's assault on judiciary.
"We have decided to boycott the supervision of the referendum on the constitution scheduled for December 15, 2012. This protest is in response to what is being called the 'constitutional decree' and until this decree is rescinded," Ahmed al-Zind, head of the Judges Club, which represents all of the country's judges, announced late on Sunday, RTI News reported. "The court did not give another date for the hearing. The judges of the Supreme Constitutional Court have no choice but to announce to the great people of Egypt that they are unable to carry out their sacred duty in such a charged environment, filled with hatred, desire for vengeance, and fabricated, imaginary animosity," the court said in the statement.
The standoff began when Morsi issued a constitutional decree on Nov. 22 which stated that all decisions, laws and declarations passed by the President, until a new Constitution is in place by mid-February, "are final and not subject to appeal" by any authority, including the judiciary, the report said.
According to the new constitution, drafted by the Islamist-dominated constitutional committee who voted on it without including any liberal or Christian members, calls for the "principles of Islamic [Shariah] law" to be the basis of Egypt's legal system.
