[JURIST] A disciplinary hearing for two Egyptian judges who complained of alleged fraud in last year's parliamentary elections [JURIST report] is set to resume amid renewed clashes between riot police and the judges' supporters [JURIST report]. The judges, Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Bastawisi, are scheduled to appear in the Supreme Constitutional Court on Thursday, though the status of the proceedings was thrown into doubt early Wednesday when Bastawisi suffered a heart attack, leaving him in serious condition. Rights groups have called for a postponement and the head of the Judge's Club, an 8,000-member group that advocates grater judicial independence, said that Mekki would not attend the hearing alone.

Mekki and Bastawisi are among several judges stripped of judicial immunity [JURIST report] and charged with slander after criticizing the parliamentary elections. Egypt's judges have called for more independence from the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak [official profile], including the right to monitor elections. Protesters have been rallying in Cairo in support of the judges and also to protest the recent extension of emergency laws [JURIST report] that have been in effect since the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat [CNN profile]. Reuters has more. The New York Sun has additional coverage.