Word: bastawissi
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...black-clad riot police had sealed off entire areas of the city in an attempt to prevent demonstrators from expressing their support for two pro-reform judges who were scheduled to appear in front of a disciplinary hearing that morning. The judges, Mahmoud Mekky and Hesham El Bastawissi, face possible expulsion from the bench after calling for the independence of Egypt's judiciary and protesting ballot fraud during last year's parliamentary elections. Their case is fast becoming a cause celebre in Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak, 78, is facing growing domestic and international pressure to democratize...
...Brotherhood officials, who organized the protest along with secular activists, told TIME at least 350 of their supporters had been arrested in three separate demonstrations in Cairo Thursday. They join scores of other activists detained in the last several weeks at similar rallies. For their part, judges Mekky and Bastawissi refused to enter the courthouse in protest. Unable to proceed without them, the hearing has been postponed until next Thursday...
...This is not a trial; it's a war," El Bastawissi told TIME by telephone from inside the Judges Club, where he was holed up with sympathetic fellow judges. "Every time, the violence gets worse than the time before. You can't have a hearing under these conditions." El Bastawissi said he, Mekky and thousands of other judges will not return to court until the government releases those who were arrested...
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