Cairo
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said Tuesday that he would not interfere with the country's judicial authorities regarding jail terms meted out this week to a handful of Al Jazeera journalists.
"We will not interfere in the judicial rulings," al-Sisi said during a speech delivered at a graduation ceremony for military cadets.
"The Egyptian judiciary is independent," he asserted. "We must respect judicial rulings and not comment on them, even if others do not understand them."
An Egyptian court on Monday slapped 18 people, including three foreign Al Jazeera journalists, with jail terms ranging from three to ten years each for "fabricating news."
In his Tuesday address, al-Sisi also announced that he planned to take a 50-percent wage cut and put half of his personal wealth towards helping the country cover a widening deficit budget.
Al-Sisi went on to say that he could not approve a proposed 2014/15 state budget because it featured a deficit of a whopping 2 trillion Egyptian pounds (roughly $280 billion).
"This situation requires measures; the people must endure in the upcoming period," al-Sisi said without specifying the nature of the "measures" referred to.
He pledged to take a 50-percent cut to his current monthly salary of $5900 and donate half of his personal wealth to government coffers.
"Egypt has received support over the past ten months from its Arab brethren; now it needs support from Egyptians – at home and abroad – to deal with the [budget] deficit," he added.
Egypt has received billions of dollars in assistance from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates since last summer's ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi, which al-Sisi led.
The government recently decided to set a maximum monthly wage of 42,000 Egyptian pounds (around $6100) for senior civil servants as part of efforts to rein in government spending.
Egyptian officials have long called for a sweeping reduction – unpopular but seen as necessary – of state energy subsidies, which stood at 128 billion pounds (some $18.2 billion) in 2012/13.
Some observers believe this figure could reach as high as 140 billion pounds (some $19 billion) by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30.
By Hussein Qabani
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en
