Egypt's justice minister: bin-men should know their place

The children of bin-men should not grow up to be judges, according to Egypt's minister of justice, Mahfouz Saber.

According to the minister, top legal positions should only be filled with people from "appropriate and respectable" segments of society.

Saber made the controversial statement on the popular TV talk show, al-Beit Beitak.

When questioned about whether the children of bin-men could be appointed to positions in the ministry of justice, he responded that a judge "should come from the appropriate environment for the job". 

"With all due respect to cleaners, or anyone beneath or above them, the social class in which judges grow up must be suitable [for the position]," Saber added.

He did have some praise for bin-men that gave their children an education but he said, from previous experience, those from the lower orders would suffer from "psychological distress" and not stay in the job.

Egyptian social media users have slammed Saber. Twitter users used the #Sack_The_Minister_Justice hashtag to show their displeasure.

The Nobel Peace laureate and former vice president, Mohammed ElBaradei, posted on Twitter a segment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his or her country. When the concept of justice does not exist in a nation, nothing is left."

Leading Egyptian human rights activist and lawyer Gamal Eid said: "There is evidence and judicial decree that Mubarak and his sons are thieves. There's no evidence the son of cleaner is a thief he could be a fair judge and honourable president. The regime is classist and unjust."

Journalist Mohammad Maree said: "Gamal Abdel Nasser's father was a farmer and Sisi's father was a furniture dealer. Along comes the minister of justice saying the children of cleaners can't be judges!#Sack_The_Minister_Justice."   

The editor-in-chief of al-Mal newspaper, Hazem Sherif, said: "Hiring the son of a judge with poor test scores and excluding the son of a bin-man who scored higher is not only a constitutional violation, but it also deprives us from our right to an efficient and impartial judiciary."

Egypt's judiciary has come under attack, both domestically and internationally, for the harsh punishments it has handed out to members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood party.

Hundreds of Islamists have been handed death sentences for taking part in protests.

On Saturday, a court sentenced deposed president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons to three years in prison on charges of corruption. 

Former president Mohamed Morsi was recently sentenced to 20 years in the first of three trails.