CAIRO, May 18, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Political turmoil in Egypt showed no signs of abating on Thursday, May 18, after a reformist judge was reprimanded for speaking out against rigging last year's legislative polls while hundreds of solidarity protestors were beat, kicked, clubbed and detained.

A government-formed disciplinary panel issued an official reprimand for outspoken judge Hesham Bastawisi, in hospital suffering from a heart attack, and cleared his colleague Mahmoud Mekky.

"My happiness with clearing my name was overshadowed by the faulty decision against judge Bastawisi," Mekky told IslamOnline.net shortly after the hearing.

"Although we faced the same charges I was cleared and he was convicted. I can think of no explanation for that," he said, adding that he will now join Bastawisi's defense team.

Members of the Court of Cassation, Egypt's highest appellate court, Mekky and Bastawisi have accused the government of rigging last year's legislative polls in favor of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

They insisted that some of their colleagues either committed fraud or ignored it while supervising the November elections.

The polls were marred by violence and ballot stuffing, with police blockades of polling stations in opposition strongholds, according to monitors.

"This is nothing less than a scandal," judge Abdel Aziz told IOL.

The disciplinary panel's decisions drew immediate rebuke from the 8000-member Judges Union.

"This is nothing less than a scandal," judge Zakaria Abdel Aziz, the union's president told IOL.

He said the decisions were just "balloons" to distract attention from mounting reform demands.

"The judges will remain loyal to their push for judicial independence," averred the senior judge.

Political analyst Mohammad El-Sayyed Saed agreed.

"This is a shameful decision that would always haunt the disciplinary panel's judges," he told IOL.

"From this day on, Egyptians will look up to judge Bastawisi as a national hero for his bravery," he added.

Mekky and Bastawisi have come to symbolize a campaign by the Judges Club for independence from interference by the government.

Egyptian authorities had thrown the gloves in handling mounting protests across the country.

Thousands of police, armed with sticks and shields, sealed off streets around the High Court and the nearby Judges Club.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main opposition with 88 seats in the legislature, said police arrested more than 500 of its members who had tried to protest in support of the judges.

The detainees included Essam el-Erian, the head of the Brotherhood's policy department, and former MP Mohamed Mursi, another prominent member.

At least 180 Brotherhood members were also injured after plainclothes security men beat, kicked and clubbed protesters.

In a crowded market area just north of the High Court complex, Reuters photographer Tara Todras-Whitehill said thugs backed by riot police chased a group of about 800 people down the street and picked off stragglers for attack.

"They took those closest to the end while the other demonstrators dispersed. I saw at least 20 people being beaten with fists and kicks and short clubs," she said.

In Talaat Harb street, one of the city's main shopping avenues, security men hemmed in about 200 protesters affiliated to the opposition Kefaya (Enough) Movement, which campaigned last year against a fifth six-year term for President Hosni Mubarak.

"They beat our people very bad in Abbasia (a northeast suburb). Many have been arrested and taken off we don't know where," Kefaya coordinator George Ishak told Reuters.

Professors and students also held a demonstration at Cairo University to express solidarity with the judges and condemn the extension last month of Egypt's 25-year-old emergency laws.

Egyptian authorities had thrown the gloves in handling mounting protests across the country to support the judges.