CAIRO: The legislative committee of the People s Assembly approved on Saturday the suggested changes to the martial courts law, MP Hamdy Hassan told The Daily Star Egypt. Both the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and representatives of opposition parties disagreed with the changes, which had been approved by the Shoura council last week. Sobhy Saleh, an MB-affiliated MP explained to The Daily Star Egypt that there were four contentious points: first, renaming the martial verdicts system, to become the 'martial legal system'; second, allowing appeals for martial courts verdicts; third, canceling the renewal system for martial courts judges whose appointment used to be renewed every two years, but will now hold their posts until they reach retirement age; and finally setting up a supervising committee from the martial legal system to oversee martial courts. We have rejected all four changes, said Saleh. Even though they have renamed it to become the 'martial legal system' the law still clearly indicates that this courts system will remain under the authority of the Ministry of Defense, Saleh said. That means that we have a legal system that is controlled by the armed forces. Saleh also lamented how the new law does not prohibit trying civilians from in military tribunals. The opposition wanted law to restrict the martial courts to military officials only, Saleh said. He added that the fact that the appeals system will be allowed means nothing. "The appeals will also be heard in the martial courts, even though we have a specialized appeals court, he said. Mohamed Mostafa, vice president of Al Wafd opposition party, told The Daily Star Egypt that the party regards the changes as an unprecedented move that is going to affect the whole judicial system in Egypt. The government has created a mirror image body of the appeals court, Mostafa said. The new law, he said, means that the martial courts are not independent, neither by name nor action. Mohamed Khalil Kwaitah, an MP representing the ruling National Democratic Party, told The Daily Star Egypt that approving the new law is a huge step forward. Martial courts used to be untouchable and their decisions were final and nonnegotiable, but now they can be appealed, Kwaitah said. Nabil Abdel Fattah, a political analyst at Al Ahram Center for political and Strategic Studies, told The Daily Star Egypt that the clause giving martial courts judges permanent posts is meant to prevent the young or unwanted judges from appearing. Especially after some of them had played a role in exposing cases of election rigging like what happened in the last survey on the constitutional amendments, Abdel Fattah said. Abdel Fattah said that introducing appeals to martial court verdicts is a positive point but the fact that the president has the constitutional power to subject civilians to military tribunals is very negative. The presence of two legal systems [the normal and martial] both eligible to judge civilians proves the duality in the legal system in Egypt, Abdel Fattah said.
