News Analysis: Court ruling to reinstate sacked prosecutor sparks debates in Egypt

CAIRO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's court ruling demanding reinstating a sacked prosecutor general spawned apprehension of more inflamed confrontations between the judiciary and the government in the future.

The Egyptian Court of Appeal on Wednesday overturned a decree by President Mohamed Morsi late last year to sack Prosecutor General Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud and appointed Talaat Ibrahim to the powerful post.

In response, Gamal Tag-aldeen, a member of the ruling Freedom and Justice Party's legal committee, slammed the verdict as "a clear assault" by the judiciary on the executive institution.

"The ruling is an obvious interference in the missions of the executive power," he told Xinhua, adding that such a ruling was the latest of a raft of "outlandish verdicts" recently issued recently by the judiciary.

"This verdict contradicts the new constitution that protects prosecutor general from being sacked during his four-year term," he said. "We are still studying whether this ruling can be appealed or not."

On the other hand, the verdict was welcomed by the opposition groups who considered Morsi's decree to sack Mahmoud was an brazen interference with the judiciary authority.

Ali al-Ghateet, a law professor at Cairo University and vice chairman of the International Union for Lawyers, described the verdict as a political and judiciary "smack."

He said the presidency would probably appeal it but such a move will "encourage people to defy judiciary authority."

Meanwhile, according to state-run al-Ahram online's interpretation, the verdict only means to avert the president's appointment of Talaat Abdallah, not give Mahmoud's old job back to him.

Ahram added that the Supreme Judiciary Council will suggest candidates to the president for him to name as the new prosecutor general.

Gamal Zahran, a political science professor at the Suez Canal University, said if the ruling just means to cancel the president' s appointment of Talaat Abdallah, it would be "a great chance for him to correct his previous mistake."

Zahran said the Supreme Judiciary Council should nominate someone who can work for the rights of the revolutionists and the condemnation against those who killed martyrs.

Bahy-aldeen Hassan, head of the Cairo Center for Human Rights, told Xinhua that the ruling will bring back righteousness to the prosecution as it recently "acted like an apparatus affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood group." "Morsi should have made up for his own mistakes, but at any rate this is a chance for him to right the wrongs," added Hassan.