The interim government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb has given the green light to legislative amendments aimed at fighting terrorism crimes. “On 3 April a plenary cabinet session approved changes to a number of articles in the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedures Law, stiffening penalties for terror related crimes and targeting those who seek to disrupt national unity,” says Minister of Local and Administrative Development Minister Adel Labib. “The amendments were approved after they were ratified by the State Council and have now been referred to interim President Adli Mansour for ratification.” The announcement was made a day after three explosions at the main gate of Cairo University killed a police brigadier-general and injured five others. An emergency cabinet session was called in the wake of the blast. Mehleb also held meetings with the ministers of defence and interior. Local human rights organisations issued a statement denouncing “the criminal” bombings but also criticised the performance of security forces in the ongoing fight against terrorism. Successive governments, they said, have pursuing “police solutions” at the expense of any dialogue with opposition forces. Agnad Misr (the Soldiers of Egypt), a little-known Islamist group, claimed responsibility for the deadly explosions. In a statement issued on 2 April the group said it was targeting those guilty of “massacres” — a reference to the crackdown on Islamists that followed the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi in July. University campuses have become a flask for violent protests. On 20 March two explosives were defused at Cairo University's Faculty of Law. “The killing of police Brigadier-General Tarek Al-Mergawi is part of an escalation in terrorist activity in Greater Cairo that has already claimed the lives of a number of police and army personnel. Government reaction must be strong and swift,” said Labib. “By issuing the new amendments we aim to send two messages: that the government will do everything it can to protect police and army personnel from terrorist attacks, and anyone found guilty of these crimes will face the death penalty or else life imprisonment.” “Amendments to the Penal Code, law no 58/1937, include 14 articles that combat terrorism,” said Magdi Al-Agati, chairman of the State Council Department of Legislations and Fatwas, during a press conference on 4 April. “Article 86 widens the definition of terrorist acts to include all acts that employ force, violence, threats, or terror to disrupt public order, jeopardise the safety of society and citizens, harm the environment, antiquities, public and private property or hamper public authorities, including the courts, government offices, local councils, hospitals, academic institutions (primarily universities), embassies and local and foreign organisations, from conducting their lawful activities.” “Those found guilty of forming, funding, organising or running a terrorist group or occupying a leading position in such a group will face the death penalty or life in prison.” Article 86 now specifies the death penalty or life imprisonment for “those found guilty of collaborating with a foreign country or a group based outside Egypt or spying for a foreign country or group to commit terrorist crimes inside Egypt or at its diplomatic missions and property abroad” . Anyone who joins the armed forces of a foreign country without securing prior written approval of the relevant Egyptian authorities, of who joins, or seeks to join, a foreign terrorist or militant group, will face life imprisonment. The same penalty applies to anyone found guilty of seeking to disrupt or overthrow the government. Should such acts result in loss of life the death penalty can apply. Article 88 specifies life imprisonment for anyone found guilty of hijacking army or police-owned vehicles and a three-year sentence for anyone convicted of illegally wearing or importing police and army uniforms or found in possession of police or army identity papers. Article 92 imposes a ten-year sentence with hard labour on anyone found guilty of creating a website with the objective of spreading terror. The State Council, said Al-Agati, had requested that the new amendments be in force only for 12 months, a window of opportunity during which the security forces should act to eradicate the terrorist scourge. “The 1937 Penal Code was first amended in 1992 when terrorist attacks by militant Islamists returning from Afghanistan peaked,” he explained. “At the time legislators argued that there was no need for an anti-terror law. Instead the Penal Code was strengthened which is what we are again doing.” Changes to the criminal procedures law, creating new judicial circuits that will fast track terrorism cases, are now being formulated.
