CAIRO — Courts and factions engaged in a frantic last minute scramble Wednesday in a struggle for power over the culmination of Egypt’s political transition after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
The two highest appellate courts went on strike, the Supreme Constitutional Court accused the president of blackmail, the Islamist leaders of the constitutional assembly rushed to complete the charter by the end of the day, and the Muslim Brotherhood called for a major demonstration Saturday to show off its own political muscle.
The dueling marked an escalation in a two-front war pitting Egypt’s Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, against the country’s courts on one side and against a galvanized opposition in the streets on the other that drew hundreds of thousands of Egyptians to Tahrir Square a day earlier in the biggest demonstration against Morsi since his election in June.
The uproar was set off by Morsi’s attempt six days ago to declare his own edicts above judicial scrutiny and thus eliminate the last check on his power until the approval of a new constitution. But Morsi’s gambit and the ensuing backlash are all aimed at the looming deadline of Sunday, when the Supreme Constitutional Court is expected to issue a ruling that could dissolve the constitutional assembly and once again upend Egypt’s chaotic transition.
Morsi has said he meant to head off the possibility that the Supreme Constitutional Court might dissolve the constitutional assembly before it can complete its work. Courts have already dissolved the recently elected Parliament, as well as an earlier constitutional assembly. And while some judges on the constitutional court are esteemed as impartial jurists, its members were all picked by Mubarak. Some are considered political loyalists, and others have expressed deep fears of the Islamists.
The constitutional assembly’s announcement of its intent to wrap up a draft constitution by today has the potential to mitigate the institutional battle but inflame the political standoff. The assembly may produce a document that could be sent to a referendum even if the court dissolves the assembly, unless the court seeks to strike down the draft along with the assembly. Or the court might refer the fate of the assembly to another panel, the administrative court, prolonging the uncertainty.
But the assembly’s rush is also stirring accusations that it is now letting politics hasten the drafting of a document intended as the definitive social contract to last for years to come. Many of the non-Islamists on the 100-member panel — about a quarter, according to the best estimates — have already walked out, damaging hopes that it might be presented as a product of consensus. Many have complained that the Islamists running the assembly were closing off debates to push the document through before the court deadline, and some have raised technical issues about executive powers, election rules or the place of Islamic law in the text.
Hossam El-Gheriani, the chief of the assembly, appealed Wednesday for the boycotters to return for the final consideration today; voting on the charter is to begin at 10 a.m.
“Come back to us so that we welcome you and you can be our partner in issuing the constitution,” he said. “This is your natural place from which you serve Egypt, not in your political party, in the street or the square; this is the square.” Today “will be a wonderful day in the history of this assembly, and everybody should receive the honor of this glorious day.”
But as a practical matter, the Islamist majority in the assembly could pass the charter on its own, and probably pass it in a public referendum as well. Advisers to Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood whose Freedom and Justice Party leads the assembly, have said they would be willing to do so.
Turning directly to the voters, Morsi’s advisers say, is the only way to break the deadlock and establish legitimacy.
However, Morsi’s bid to extend his power over the courts for the duration of the assembly suffered a serious blow Wednesday when the Court of Cassation and the Cairo Appeals Court announced that they were joining a national judges strike in protest of his decree. In the Egyptian judicial system, the two panels are the highest courts for appeals. And unlike the Supreme Constitutional Court, their judges are selected by their peers on the basis of seniority and accomplishment, so they cannot be dismissed as Mubarak loyalists.
Judge Yousri Abel Kareem, a member of the Cairo Appeals Court, said in a television interview that work would be suspended “in all civil and criminal circuits” until the president withdrew his decree and reinstated the Mubarak-appointed chief prosecutor he had sought to fire.
Meanwhile, an Egyptian court convicted in absentia Wednesday seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Floridabased American pastor, sentencing them to death on charges linked to an anti-Islam film that had sparked riots in parts of the Muslim world.
The case was seen as largely symbolic because the defendants, most of whom live in the United States, are all outside Egypt and are thus unlikely to ever face the sentence. The charges were filed in September during a wave of public anger in Egypt over the amateur film, Innocence of Muslims, which portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, womanizer and buffoon.
Egypt’s official news agency said the court found the defendants guilty of harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam and spreading false information — charges that carry the death sentence.
Information for this article was contributed by Mayy El-Sheikh of The New York Times; and by Sarah El Deeb, Curt Anderson, Matthew Barakat and Gillian Flaccus of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 11/29/2012