Divisive draft AL-AZHAR has said that its draft law on personal status issues is ready. The draft, which took nearly one year, includes several amendments to the current personal status law of 1920. Al-Azhar said in an official statement that the draft is comprehensive, covering familial issues related to divorce, custody, alimony and other thorny topics. Al-Azhar's announcement stirred widespread debate among parliamentary members, who viewed such a step as violating their legislative role. Parliament's Religious Committee had asked Al-Azhar, the centre of Islamic learning, to only give its opinion on a draft law already prepared by members of parliament and not to draft another version. However, instead of revising the draft law presented to it, Al-Azhar's grand imam assigned an Azharite committee to prepare a completely new one. Legal activists also opposed Al-Azhar's draft, arguing that granting Al-Azhar legislative capacity will turn Egypt into a religious state. For its part, parliament's Religious Committee said that while it may take into account Al-Azhar's amendments, they will not be the basis for any upcoming draft.
Munich security meeting THE MUNICH Security Conference (MSC) core group meeting, held in Cairo this week for the first time, tackled security issues in the Middle East and North Africa, including terrorism, migration and climate change. Meeting some of the participants, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi shed light on the necessity of “arduous efforts” to find solutions to instability in the Middle East, affirming Egypt's supporting efforts to help bring stability and security to the region. “Egypt's counter-terrorism efforts are based on certain fundamentals, including preserving the national state from disintegration, supporting and protecting national institutions, supporting national armies, confronting the spread of armed militias and terrorist organisations, supporting the people's will, and not interfering in the affairs of other countries,” Al-Sisi said. The MSC is an annual conference hosted by Munich on international security and foreign policy. It was held for the first time in 1963. The core group of the conference addresses specific global issues and themes. Its meetings are held in many cities across the world. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri highlighted in his address the Egyptian vision vis-à-vis peace and security issues in the African continent which, he said, stems from the importance of adopting a comprehensive approach that addresses the root causes of problems threatening peace and security in Africa. Egypt will host the Arab Union's Centre for Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (AUC-PCRD), and hold the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development on 11-12 December as part of its efforts to achieve peace and security in the continent. MSC Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger and the ministers of foreign affairs and defence of a number of Arab and African countries attended the two-day meeting. Ambassadors and representatives of embassies and regional and international organisations accredited to Egypt also attended the meeting. Following the meeting in Cairo, the MSC convened a subsequent two-day core group meeting in Doha, co-hosted with the government of Qatar. In February this year, Al-Sisi participated in the annual Munich Security Policy Conference in Germany, highlighting security challenges facing the African continent, migration issues and means of fighting terrorism.
Pushed from a moving train THE CONDUCTOR of the Alex-Luxor train who caused the death of a passenger and the injury of another was remanded in custody for four days by a General Prosecution decree issued on Monday. According to eyewitnesses, the conductor and the train's chief, also being held, forced two vendors to jump out of the VIP air-conditioned train as it was moving near Tanta after it was discovered that they did not have tickets. One of the victims landed beneath the wheels of the train and died instantly while the other was seriously injured in the leg. The conductor confessed that he pushed the two off the moving train. The railway police arrested the two suspects and referred them to prosecution. The railway service suspended both from work until an investigation is completed. According to Railway Authority policy, any passenger who refuses to pay a ticket fare should be handed to security personnel at the nearest railway station. Minister of Transportation Kamel Al-Wazir said his ministry cares about the rights of passengers and that the prosecution will decide on the case and reveal the truth soon. Those responsible for the incident will be severely punished, Al-Wazir said.
The killer is a child SHEBIN AL-KOM juvenile court on Sunday announced that Mohamed Rageh, the main suspect in the murder of a teenager, is a minor and accordingly the child law should be applied to him. Rageh and three of his friends stabbed to death high school student Mahmoud Al-Banna after Al-Banna defended a girl they were sexually harassing. Al-Banna had written a Facebook post in which he said “it is not manly to beat a girl in the street.” The crime sparked a social media campaign calling for executing Rageh and amending the child law. Al-Banna was dubbed “the martyr of chivalry”. During the first hearing of the case, Al-Banna's lawyers asked the court to verify Rageh's age, saying that if it was proven that he was 18, he should stand trial before a criminal court. According to official documents submitted to the court, Rageh is said to be less than 18. Talking to reporters after the court session, Abdel-Aziz Noseir, Al-Banna's lawyer, said the maximum prison sentence Rageh might get is 15 years. “No accused person would be sentenced to death, life imprisonment or forced labour if he, at the time of committing the crime, had not reached the age of 18,” states Article 111 of the child law. During the hearing, the court watched video evidence showing the attack on Al-Banna by four young men, including Rageh. *A version of this article appears in print in the 24 October, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
