Hundreds of lawyers staged fresh protests on Monday outside court buildings across Cairo, Giza, and several governorates , opposing newly introduced service fees they say are unconstitutional.
The protests, held in front of courts including those in Sohag, Suez, Luxor, South Giza, Alexandria, North Cairo, Aswan, Ismailia, Fayoum, Minya, and South Sinai, were documented by the Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate official Facebook page.
This is the second wave of protests this month. On April 13, lawyers had staged similar sit-ins, followed by a three-day boycott of financial transactions at appeals courts and their branches.
“The Ministry of Justice and the Courts of Appeal Council have shown no flexibility so far in addressing our demands to scrap these fees, which violate the constitutional principle that no taxes or charges may be imposed without a law,” Abu Bakr Dowa, a board member of the syndicate, told Al-Manassa.
Facing continued official inaction, the Lawyers Syndicate plans to escalate its protest. Dowa said lawyers would once again refuse to make any financial deposits at court treasuries nationwide on Tuesday — extending the boycott beyond appeals courts to all courts of all levels for one day.
The syndicate's council, in coordination with heads of local syndicate chapters, agreed earlier this month to discipline any lawyer who broke the boycott, starting with a formal warning and denial of union services. Repeat violations would lead to suspension and disciplinary proceedings.
The crisis began in early March when Mohamed Nasr Sayed, head of the Cairo Courts of Appeal , issued a decision imposing a new 33-pound ($1.07) "portfolio review fee" per document submitted. Additional charges for services like issuing certificates rose to 60.5 pounds, while obtaining an executable copy of a judgment now costs 242 pounds, according to Syndicate Council member Rabie El-Malwany.
On March 8, the Lawyers Syndicate publicly rejected the fees, arguing they contradicted constitutional guarantees of access to justice. In a statement, the syndicate criticized the lack of consultation before imposing the charges, noting that lawyers, as an integral part of the judicial system under the constitution, were excluded from discussions.
A crisis management committee within the syndicate labeled the situation “a grave challenge imposed on the Egyptian public and the legal profession,” vowing to pursue all available legal avenues to overturn the decision.
The syndicate formed an internal committee to manage the crisis, which it described as a "grave matter and a crisis imposed on Egyptian society and the legal profession, undermining the right to litigation without acceptable justification."
