CAIRO: Egypt's Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) announced that it will end military trials for civilians, pending the termination of the country's decades-old emergency law. The SCAF claims that it is preparing to end the emergency law before Parliamentary elections in November. The announcement has been met with criticism, however. Maha Maamoun, a project coordinator from the Hisham Mubarak Law Center told Bikyamasr.com that she was not optimistic about the announcement. “They continue to justify the trials and the emergency law, keeping it open ended. There are no clear criteria for an end,” said Maamoun. “They can easily manipulate events even two weeks before the emergency law is supposed to end, making it seem necessary,” she added. Activists have harshly criticized the SCAF for its military trials since it came to power last February. The practice of trying civilians in military courts was a controversial issue during the former Hosni Mubarak presidency, and its continued use has created fears about revolutionary progress. Thousands have been tried in these special courts, notorious for their severe sentencing. The defendants often appear before military judges by the dozen, in an environment that is not conducive to due process. Defendants in the courts are not granted access to legal council, the verdicts of the courts may not be appealed, and the trials often take place in private. These practices have outraged Egyptian activists for months. “Military trials are a tool in the SCAF's hand,” says lawyer Ahmed Ragheb, executive director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center. “They are using military courts because they provide more control than civil courts, which have independent judges and legal accountability.” According to Ragheb, Egypt's army rulers have imprisoned 12,000 civilians through military courts in the past 6 months. The number is staggering when compared to the 2,000 that were sentenced by the same means during Mubarak's 30-year rule, the center reported. Ruling generals claim that the trials are a necessity after a wave of unrest and criminality after the ousting of Mubarak. The SCAF has reportedly acknowledged the right to a fair trial as encompassed in the UN Declaration of Human Rights; however, they claim that the trails are temporarily necessary due to an increase in crime rates in recent months. Various Egyptian oppositional political parties have organized a “Path of Correction,” protest for this Friday September 9. The protest aims to pressure the army to end military trials for civilians, along with other demands including support for free and fair elections and a transfer to civilian power. “The only thing we can do is to continue our campaigns against the military trials, and to continue peacefully pressuring the army,” added Maamoun. BM
