Judges and Law in Egypt.

[Hafiz]

Judges and Law in Egypt.

Ahmed Suleiman was briefly a Brotherhood Minister for Justice. Prior to that he was a long serving judge appointed by Mubarak. At the end of his brief Ministry he tried to return to the judiciary. The Imperial Supreme Judicials (God save and protect them from justice and make them immortal) refused – wait for it – and refused to give any reasons for their decision. A bit like their court cases – they don’t give written decisions so there is no record of the reasons for what they have done. How just and transparent. Maybe they didn’t like him because he was 53 years at the time rather than the ‘mandatory’ 85 years and was not living in a life support ward or a dementia one.

His story could be an example that moderate Brotherhood types are completely rejected by the powers that be and moderate judicial processes tossed out ages ago by a regime that is more extreme than we are prepared to acknowledge.

Its unlikely he is or was a bomb throwing Brother because Mubarak and his colleagues had previously appointed him head of the Court of Appeals. Therefore his views on current events are worth listening to – also he is on the ground and understands the labyrinthine nature of Egyptian ‘justice’

He has a 20 year history of strong support for judicial independence and of standing up to Mubarak and Morsi and opposing military judicial power. http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/me ... -ministers

Here is some of what he said in January:

“The ruling regime in Egypt despises the law and the Constitution, holds no regard for both, and is obsessed with overwhelming desire to eliminate its opponents. Egyptian civil and military judiciary witnesses an unprecedented ordeal as it violates the provisions of law publicly and deliberately; denies defense attorneys due rights; and in many trials, issues death sentences and life prison terms against hundreds of the regime opponents without a legally admissible evidence and based on government investigations alone.

…many Egyptians have been imprisoned for crimes that are not punishable by law.

…the existing authority adopts the method of falsifying investigations as an instrument of vendetta against anyone that it wishes to retaliate against.

….Fourth, the “Terrorism Courts” were formed so certain judges can be appointed to adjudicate specific cases, and many of them were under scrutiny, however, investigations into their lack of integrity were closed before they were appointed by the regime. Many of them have failed to abide by the rules of law and guarantees of fair trials. Examples are:

Judge Said Yousef, in both cases of “storming Al 'Adwa and Matai police stations” rejected motion by the defense to recuse him from the case, and refused to hear the defense’s arguments. The judge adjudicated the two cases, each of which involves more than 500 individuals, in few hours and in only two sessions, sentencing all defendants to death.

Sixth: Many judges excessively rule with the maximum punishment prescribed by law without any legal basis, whether the penalty is death or life imprisonment. In the case of “storming the Matai police station”, Judge Said Yousef sentenced 37 defendants to death and 394 to life imprisonment. The ruling was later revoked by the higher court, and 238 of those defendants were acquitted in a retrial. The widow of the slain deputy commander of the police station stated that the convicted defendants were not the ones who killed her husband and that his murderers are still at large.

In the case of Kerdasa, Judge Nagy Shehata sentenced 183 defendants to death, a ruling that was later revoked because it was based merely on police inquiry. After retrial, the appeal court only sentenced 20 defendants to death, acquitted 21 defendants who were originally sentenced to death, and the rest were sentenced to life or temporary imprisonment.

In criminal case no. 58 for the year 2015, the military court adjudicated a case where 116 defendants were charged with killing of 4 people and the attempted murder of 8 others, attacking public facilities, and the use of force and violence against the police and the army. All 116 defendants were sentenced to life, including a 4-year-old toddler Ahmed Korany Shararah, whose defense presented his birth certificate to the court and prosecution; and Samir 'Abd Al Rahim who was abroad when the incident took place and his defense presented a copy of his passport.

Therefore, I call for the need to issue a law to stop the implementation of the death penalty temporarily to save innocent lives that may be unjustly killed.” Seems reasonable and moderate to suspend the death sentence given the repeated large scale conviction and sentencing ‘errors’ of lower courts. http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=32891

Could it get worse – probably yes. The Pew Survey up to 2014 had Egyptian public opinion showing contempt for the courts and police – but how is a dictatorship going to hold onto power unless those chaps do their dirty work and I think their work is only going to get ‘harder’ as the economy staggers on.

He gives more examples, many of which are dated. Its reasonable to assume that judicial abuses/errors/carelessness/boot-licking are now much worse and the secret military courts much, much worse again.

The source for the above report is Ikhwan web so its probably blocked in Egypt as a Brotherhood body – but not in the most of the rest of the world including Israel, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Syria and Russia, beacons of freedom and rights, have proscribed it and they know all about evil.

I put this forward because the author is by all accounts a sensible and informed man in a confused time trying to point out problems in the asylum.

As the criticism of courts has grown the Egyptian courts have jailed people for ‘criticizing’ the judiciary which raises the question whether any Egyptian legal scholars can make an informed criticism of a judge/judgment – probably not. In Minya in 2015 8 lawyers were sentenced to 25 years jail. In other cases Judges have been taped behaving in court like out of control animals. http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt ... 2107947060

Generally the Egyptian judges are amongst the worst educated in the world. The local law schools are appalling, few are educated overseas and many judgments are not committed to writing let alone published. Egyptian legal academics publish little or nothing and have poor international standing. For example the huge Cairo Law school has low grade students who have failed to get into higher status courses. Classes are huge (final year 5,000 students), critical and analytical thinking poor (like every other Egyptian university) fail rates unclear (but probably massive), bribery to get a pass not uncommon.

Court processes are also slow and the judges do little to hold police to account for weak cases when everyone knows the police have been out of control for ages and even President Sisi called them in a formal US media interviews a ‘million man mafia’.

Almost unique amongst professions in the world there is little/no formal training/update following graduation – probably because they are perfect. https://www.loc.gov/law/help/access-to- ... .php#_ftn6

What gets most attention are the political cases in the Egyptian courts but bad courts and political/unskilled judges have commercial and employment effects because Egyptian and particularly overseas investors are very wary of investing in countries where you aren’t going to get justice in a commercial case.

Before things got really bad the prestigious International Commission of Jurists published a report in September 2016 entitled Egypt’s Judiciary A Tool of Repression. https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/ ... -ENG-1.pdf. They also said that the Presidential Elections weren’t free and fair but the 11 ‘NGO’s’ paid by the Egyptian government said they were perfect. https://www.timesofisrael.com/internati ... on-unfair/

The International Commission has made many criticisms of Egyptian justice including its flawed basic thinking. Here is one example:

‘Further, under Egyptian law, decisions of felonies courts are not subject to appeal. They can only be challenged before the Cassation Court, which does not look at the merits of the case but rather only the proper application of the law by lower courts.” The case they refer to is a death sentence of a former political leader. You can’t appeal on the merits. Really! What control can there be over bad judges? . http://www.icj.org/egypt-executions-and ... t-to-life/

[newcastle]

Egyptian blogger among 24 facing jail terms for ‘insulting’ the judiciary
28 September 2017, 17:24 UTC

The Egyptian authorities must drop all charges against Alaa Abdel Fattah, a blogger and human rights activist who rose to prominence during the 2011 uprising, and at least 23 other defendants, who could face up to four years in prison simply for criticizing the country’s flawed justice system, said Amnesty International.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/ ... judiciary/

It's a brave - perhaps foolhardy - man who criticises the judiciary.