Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council on Monday forced 32 judges into retirement for having opposed the army’s ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 officials said.
Morsi was overthrown by then army chief who is now the President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and since then, the country’s authorities have cracked down on all forms of dissent, including secularists and liberals.
“Today, the Supreme Judicial Council took a decision to force 32 judges into retirement for intervening in politics and supporting a certain party,” News24 reports a senior official from the council said on condition of anonymity.
Last week the council had taken similar action against 15 other judges for the same reason.
The judges have been on suspension since March 2015 after a lower panel of the council ordered that they be sent into retirement. On Monday, the council upheld that order.
The council said that some of the judges openly declared their opposition to Morsi’s ouster at the time in a signed statement at Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square.
