President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday returned the widely criticized criminal procedure bill to the House of Representatives after five months, asking lawmakers to review objections to several articles in the draft law.
Parliament had passed the bill on April 29, a move followed by UN criticism that it “introduces remote trials without sufficient safeguards, expands prosecutorial powers over police custody and pretrial detention, and grants wide discretion to bar defense lawyers from accessing case files and interrogation records in the name of protecting the investigation.”
According to Sunday’s presidency statement, the bill reached the presidency from the House on Aug. 26 with a request to promulgate it, along with “numerous appeals” urging the president to reconsider some provisions.
The contested articles, the statement said, relate to governance, clarity and practicality, warranting a fresh review “to secure more safeguards for the inviolability of the home and for defendants’ rights before investigative and trial authorities; to expand alternatives to pretrial detention to curb its use; to remove any drafting ambiguity that could invite multiple interpretations or implementation problems; and to allow sufficient time for ministries and relevant bodies to implement the bill’s new mechanisms and templates and to familiarize themselves with its provisions so they can be applied accurately and smoothly, achieving swift justice within the framework of the constitution and law.”
El-Sisi praised the House’s work on the bill and its first-ever regulations covering “travel bans and arrival watchlists; monetary compensation for pretrial detention in specified cases and shorter detention periods; investigative procedures, renewal of detention and remote trials using information technology; witness protection; international judicial cooperation in criminal matters; as well as substantive amendments to other provisions of the current Criminal Procedure Code.”
In May, the UN Committee against Torture voiced concern over Egypt’s move to enact the new criminal procedure code. In a report delivered at the time to the Egyptian government, the committee noted the sweeping powers granted to the President of the Republic under the Emergency Act, including the authority to appoint judges, halt investigations, order retrials, and confirm, modify, annul or suspend verdicts issued by the Emergency State Security Courts.
The UN committee said it is aware that emergency courts continue to hear cases referred before the state of emergency ended in October 2021, expressing “concern” that defendants before those courts remain subject to “to exceptional judicial proceedings lacking due process and fair trial guarantees.”
Separately, seven UN Human Rights Council special rapporteurs sent a detailed letter to the Egyptian government in November last year warning that the new bill would undermine the rights of all people interacting with the criminal justice system, whether as defendants, victims, witnesses or human rights defenders.
At the end of April, the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession criticized the bill’s approval as a “blow to justice in Egypt,” urging Sisi not to sign it and to resubmit its provisions for public consultation to avoid “constitutional and legal defects.”
Before the House vote, rights advocates and the Journalists Syndicate also criticized the draft. The syndicate prepared a paper and sent comments to parliament on provisions that diminish citizens’ rights during arrest, investigation and trial.
During floor debates, several objections—ultimately ignored by parliament—targeted articles on remote trials; a 500-pound fine on a second petition to stay execution of judgments; rules for asset freezing; adopting electronic tagging as a precautionary alternative to pretrial detention; and granting citizens the right to bring criminal actions against public officials.
Previously, rights lawyers at a press conference hosted by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights announced their rejection of the bill, saying it “threatens the stability of the justice system.”
