“Fifteen people were detained in the early hours of Monday outside the judges syndicate in Cairo,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“Plainclothed security tried to remove us by force,” said Salma Said, one of the 40 protesters and a member the pro-reform Youth for Change movement.

“They beat some of the protesters up and when judge Mahmud Hamza came down to defend us, he was beaten up too,” she told AFP. The judge was hospitalised but his condition was not thought to be serious.

Pro-reform judges started a sit-in on April 19 to support two colleagues, who face disciplinary action after alleging the judiciary helped rig the 2005 parliamentary polls that saw the ruling party retain a firm grip on power.

“Mahmud Hamza is the price the judges are paying for their independence,” said Nagui Derbala, a judge at the scene. “It is a message from a security service that does not respect the law.”

“Every day there is more proof that there is no independence of the judiciary,” he told AFP.

The judges syndicate, which has become one of the most potent symbols of calls for change and reform in Egypt, has campaigned relentlessly over the past year to demand more independence from the executive branch.

“We will carry on with our demands as long as we live,” said Derbala, “we will insist on an independent judiciary.”

In an interview published Monday in the Egyptian daily Al-Gomhuriya, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak denied any attempt by his regime to intervene in the judiciary system.

“I will not intervene between judges out of respect for the judiciary’s independence and esteem for its judges,” he said.