Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), headed by Abdel Wahab Abdel Razak, postponed on Saturday a hearing for a lawsuit filed by the government to resolve contradicting rulings of other courts regarding the Red Sea islands case, to 21 January. The court postponed its ruling in the case to 3 March, privately-owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported The session was postponed to let the plaintiffs review the court-affiliated report. Six months ago, the State Commissioners Authority of the SCC released a report to halt all contradicting rulings regarding the agreement until the case is resolved. The court had previously temporarily halted all the rulings issued in the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir case, issued by the State Council and the Court of Urgent Matters. In April, the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters nullified a previous court ruling by the Administrative Court which had annulled the Egyptian-Saudi maritime demarcation agreement that aims to transfer sovereignty of the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia. In June 2017, the Egyptian Parliament approved the Egyptian-Saudi maritime demarcation after three days of heated sessions, which meant transferring the sovereignty of Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia. The agreement, known as the "Red Sea islands" was signed during the visit of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud in April 2016 to Egypt. It has been a source of public controversy since then and sparked protests that saw the detention of dozens of demonstrators.
