The Egyptian security services detained Judge Amir Awad on Monday during a court hearing in Cairo. He faces the charge of signing a statement which referred to the removal of Egypt’s first freely-elected President Mohamed Morsi as a military coup, Anadolu has reported.
Anonymous judicial sources said that the Head of the Ministry of Justice Disciplinary Committee, Jamal Abdul-Latif, was behind the move to arrest Awad inside the headquarters of the Supreme Judicial Council in the centre of the Egyptian capital. He was detained, it is said, because he was planning to be out of Cairo soon.
The judge is one of 60 who are being prosecuted for signing the statement in question. They believe that what happened in 2013 was “a coup against legitimacy”.
The statement is known in Egypt as the “Rabaa Statement” as it was signed during the protest in Rabaa Al-Adawiyya Square, which lasted for about six weeks after Morsi’s ouster. It ended violently when security forces killed hundreds of protesters and wounded and arrested many more.
All 60 judges were referred to the disciplinary committee ahead of them being removed from their positions. According to Egyptian law, when a judge is referred to the committee he remains in post until he is sacked by the Supreme Judicial Council.