By MadaMasr –
Three bills that would further consolidate the powers granted to the president and the military and make the latter even more impervious to criticism were approved by lawmakers this week, just days after Egypt exited a four-year legal state of emergency under which the military prosecutor and president were granted wide reaching judicial authority.
Amendments to three laws — the protection of public facilities law, the counter-terrorism law and the Penal Code — were submitted by the Cabinet to the House on October 23, the same date on which the years-long state of emergency was not renewed for the first time in four years.
A range of public facilities, including electricity stations, towers and grids, gas lines, oil fields, railways, road networks, bridges and others, will soon be permanently under the control of the Armed Forces, which allows for civilians accused of trespassing on or damaging them to be tried in military courts, after lawmakers gave final approval to the Cabinet’s draft amendments to a 2014 law on Sunday.
In its initial iteration, which was issued by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi just six months after he ascended to the presidency, the military were to take on joint responsibility for public facilities alongside the police for a period of two years.
Yet, Sisi decided in August 2016, months before its expiration date, to extend it for five years, ending on October 28, 2021, days before the new amendments made the law permanent.
Amendments to the counter terrorism law, which got final approval on Monday, will allow for the president, upon ordering a curfew or evacuation in a given area, to delegate an official to implement the orders. The president will also be able to issue prison sentences between three to 15 years or fines of up to LE100,000 for breaking curfews or violating evacuation orders. The fineable amount for filming, recording, broadcasting, or displaying any facts from terrorism-related trial sessions was also increased to a minimum of LE100,000 and a maximum of LE300,000.
Transparency around the military will be further reduced by the final piece of legislation, approved Monday, which amends Penal Code Article 80a on “revealing state secrets to foreign states,” making it a punishable offence to collect, through statistics, studies or data, any information related to the Armed Forces and their work, or information about current or former members, unless written authorization is first granted by the Defense Ministry. Prison sentences for the offense will be set at six months to five years, with fines of LE5,000 to LE50,000.
Though the session saw the approval of all the laws, their passage did not go without comment. MP Maha Abdel Nasser of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party reportedly remarked upon the timing, saying, “we have reservations about the timing, as it coincides with the president’s abolition of the state of emergency and the issuance of the human rights strategy.” “What is the idea behind messaging about security, then following that with an expansion and toughening of penalties for research and publication, despite the inclusion of freedom of information in the national human rights strategy? We must have a clear definition of state defense secrets.”
MP Mohamed Abd Elaleem Dawood — who was expelled from the Wafd Party earlier this year — opposed the amendments in more certain terms, saying that they will prevent researchers and journalists from carrying out their work.
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