The Egyptian Bar Association announced Thursday, January 19 an “
unlimited
” strike to denounce the imprisonment of six colleagues for a fight with clerks at the beginning of the month.
"
We are immediately suspending all of our activities, we will stop appearing before the courts and participating in public prosecution investigations from January 19 and for an unlimited period,
" the lawyers announced on their union's website.
A “rushed” trial
On Wednesday January 18, the correctional court of Marsa Matrouh (north-west) sentenced six lawyers to two years in prison following a brawl which opposed them on January 5 to three clerks of the court of the coastal city, according to the daily of
Al-Ahram
State .
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The Egyptian lawyers believe that there was "
a clear intention to keep their colleagues in preventive detention without real justification
" and denounce a "
rush to bring them to trial without taking the time to carry out a real investigation
", according to the statement from their union.
Lawyers for the six convicted have appealed the decision and the court is expected to consider their petition on Sunday.
Exceptional events in December
In December, thousands of Egyptian lawyers demonstrated outside their union's headquarters in central Cairo, an exceptional event in a country where public demonstrations are banned, to protest against a new electronic invoicing system introduced by the Ministry of Finance .