CAIRO, May 11, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Egyptian security forces brutalized activists and assaulted and detained journalists during a protest Thursday, May 11, in support of two senior judges facing a disciplinary court for blowing the whistle over irregularities that marred last year's legislative polls.

"Judges, protect us from dictatorship," chanted the protestors, who split into at least three separate demonstrations to avoid being encircled by the police.

"Judges, judges, save us from the tyrants" and "Down, down with Hosni Mubarak" were but few of the chants resonating near the High Court in the heart of the capital Cairo.

Thousands of riot police surrounded the several hundreds demonstrators and plainclothes security men moved in, hitting and dragging away selected protesters.

One protestor was held against a wall and beaten until his face bled heavily while several others with bloodied faces were seen whisked away in police vans.

Judges Mahmoud Mekky and Hesham El-Bastawisi, who accused the government of rigging last year's parliamentary elections, are being charged with insulting the judiciary.

Members of the Court of Cassation, Egypt's highest appellate court, the pair insisted that some of their colleagues either committed fraud or ignored it while supervising the November elections.

The polls, won by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), were marred by violence and ballot stuffing, with police blockades of polling stations in opposition strongholds, according to monitors.

Many protesters were arrested. (Reuters)

Even local and international media representatives were not spared police brutality.

Three plainclothes policemen beat a photographer working for Reuters, confiscated one of his cameras and smashed another on the ground.

A cameraman for the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news television was also badly beaten and had his equipment confiscated.

"Around 100 Muslim Brotherhood supporters were arrested by the security forces," a Brotherhood lawmaker told IslamOnline.net.

Demonstrators later dispersed over the crackdown by the security forces.

The two judges had refused to enter the courtroom after their defense team was denied access.

"What is happening today is an unprecedented scandal," Bastawissi told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"I will no longer attend the hearings of the disciplinary board if the conditions for a fair trial are not met," he stressed.

The hearing went ahead without the pair before it was adjourned until Thursday, May 18.

The disciplinary action has triggered street protests in support of the judges, who have become one of the symbols of the reform drive in Egypt.

During their first hearing two weeks ago, thousands of riot police were deployed and clashed with protesters supporting the pair.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 100 pro-reform activists have been detained over the past two weeks for supporting the judges and for campaigning to repeal Egypt's state of emergency law, which has been in place since 1981.

"These new arrests indicate that Mubarak intends to silence all peaceful opposition," Joe Stork, the rights watchdog's deputy regional director said in a statement.