CAIRO - A Cairo administrative court on Saturday referred to the Supreme Constitutional Court, Egypt's highest judicial body entitled to review the Constitution's application, an article of the emergency law according to which civilians stand military trials, urging a response before November 28, a judicial source said. "The Constitutional Court should review Article 48 of the Military Tribunal Law and its amendments. The court is also urged to decide whether this article is constitutional or not by November 28," Judge Abdel Meguid el-Moqanan, a deputy head of the State Council, said. The decision was taken as el-Moqana was presiding over an administrative court hearing a case by a human rights group against the referral of civilians to military courts, a major demand by Egyptian revolutionaries. Local and International human rights groups had called on the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to stop referring civiliations to military courts, prompting the council to announce that this would not end until the 30-year-old emergency law is scrapped. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Saturday Egypt's military had arrested and tried more civilians before military tribunals than those brought before them during the 30-year rule of former president Hosni Mubarak. "Nearly 12,000 prosecutions since February is astounding and shows how Egypt's military rulers are undermining the transition to democracy," Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Egyptian activists returned to Cairo's Tahrir square on Friday to demand a clear road map to democracy and an end to military trials for civilians. Rights groups say the trials, held behind closed doors, were a common practice under Mubarak and their continued use shows how far Egypt has to go to guarantee the rule of law. The army had said on September 5 it would stop trying civilians in military courts when it scraps the country's decades-old emergency law. The ruling generals say the military trials are a temporary but necessary measure to deal with a wave of disorder and an increase in criminality following Mubarak's ouster. But an end to emergency law alone would not guarantee an end to the practice, Human Rights Watch said. Under the Code of Military Justice, the army can bring civilians before military tribunals for crimes committed in an area controlled by the military, the rights group said. "The Egyptian authorities should amend the Code of Military Justice in line with its obligations under international law to limit military jurisdiction to military offences," Stork said.
