Judge Has Heart Attack on Eve of Hearing

Judge Has Heart Attack on Eve of Hearing
By Associated Press

May 17, 2006, 1:51 PM EDT

CAIRO, Egypt -- A high-profile reformist judge suffered a heart attack Wednesday, a day before his disciplinary hearing for blowing the whistle on alleged fraud in Egypt's parliamentary elections last year.

Hesham Bastawisi was hospitalized underwent an operation to unclog his coronary arteries, his wife said.

He will not attend Thursday's hearing -- the latest step by Egypt to punish Bastawisi and another judge, Mahmoud Mekky, for comments they made on television about election abuses last year.

The two refused to attend a similar hearing last week.

Their case has prompted hundreds of Egyptians to take to the streets in recent weeks in solidarity with the judges and against their treatment by the government.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-egypt-judges,0,2787523.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

Too bad for him either way.