Algeria’s lawyers ask for apology from flag burners

The National Union for Algerian Lawyers’s organisations is expected to hold a reconciliation meeting with the Egyptian Lawyers’ Union on July 12 in Algiers to end the football conflict between Algeria and Egypt.

• The Union’s president Mohamed Ottmani said president of the Jordanian Union will play the role of mediation while the presidents of the Tunisian and Sudanese Unions will be members of the Reconciliation Commission.
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• The conflict started after a World Cup qualifying match between Algeria and Egypt in Sudan and when Egyptian lawyers burnt Algeria’s flag.
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• “We will try to reach an agreement with our Egyptian brothers but we are asking to ban the lawyers who burnt the Algerian flag from the Egyptian lawyers’ list,” Ottmani told Echorouk.
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• “We are also asking the Egyptian president of the Arab Lawyers’ Union to make a public apology during a meeting due to be held after the reconciliation session,” he added.
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• “Otherwise, we would ask to dismiss him and Algeria would boycott the Arab Lawyers’ Union meeting.”
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• Ottmani said four members of the Algerian Lawyers’ Union are expected to attend the Reconciliation Commission’s meeting due to be held in Beirut.
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• He added that the Secretary General of the Arab Lawyers’ Union invited the Algerian Lawyers’ Union to attend a reconciliation meeting in Cairo but the Algerian Union rejected the invitation. Jordan refused to host the reconciliation meeting before the Lebanese Lawyers’ Union had suggested hosting the meeting.
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• The president of the Lebanese Lawyers’ Union said he hopes that mediation efforts will come up with a good solution to end the conflict between the Algerian and Egyptian unions.