Egypt: MPs forced to re-debate bill due to human rights concerns

In a surprising U-turn, the Egyptian Parliament has been forced to reassess overhauling the country’s criminal law, after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi demanded that lawmakers ensure the new bill codified the right to a fair trial, according to The Arab Weekly, October 2.

The Country’s Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouli, has seconded the President’s concerns around “clarity” and “fairness,” and has reiterated the importance of amending the bill to MPs.

The move has come after the United Nations, alongside several rights groups, pressed upon Sisi not to proceed with ratifying the bill, which he received in April, a move that would have brought the deeply concerning legal powers into law.

Vocal critics expressed strong reservations about the bill’s potential to roll back any hope of reforming Egypt’s often infamous repressive legal system. They say that should the bill in its current form be made law, it would legalise much of the police’s and courts’ malpractices, such as police misconduct and blatant arbitrary detention, among other issues that have worn down the country’s right to a fair trial.

The President has emphasised the need to “remove ambiguities” and ensure that legal due process rights are guaranteed, as well as offering crucial legal, economic, and bureaucratic reforms. In particular, El-Sisi stressed the need to provide suitable alternatives to the long and brutal pre-trial detention stints that arrestees are frequently subjected to for years at a time, as was the case for the recently released activist Alaa Abdel Fattah.

Experts and rights groups believed that the bill would expand policing and prosecutorial powers beyond any reasonable limit, doing so at the expense of defendants, lawyers, and judicial oversight.

One legal draft reportedly granted police powers to enter homes without a warrant, with Egypt’s President himself saying the law must “guarantee the sanctity of the home.” Rights defenders say any move like this would undermine the proper ability of legal defence counsellors to ensure their client’s right to a fair trial, and disrupt the proper function of courts.

One of Egypt’s most well-renowned rights organizations said that the decision to amend the bill is an all-too-rare opportunity to consolidate real legal victories. As the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights put it, their Parliament is now presented with the “rare opportunity to reconsider the law’s overall philosophy,” instead of merely applying small and ineffective changes that offer no long-term improvement, or create more problems elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch has called on the Egyptian parliament to “completely revise the draft law to eliminate” any rights violations.

Egypt has long-since garnered criticism, with opponents of Egypt’s legal system citing its frequent rights-breaking through unfair trials, enforced disappearances, and the aforementioned long pre-trial detention periods.

Egyptian authorities have hit back at this categorisation by saying that their tight security measures and legal practices are justified given the nature of the country’s challenges, such as threats posed by extremist groups.

The Arab Weekly, Human Rights Watch, Maghrebi.org