Egypt’s interim Cabinet on Tuesday announced plans to implement a “Treason Law” aimed at banning anyone found guilty of “spoiling political life” during ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s reign - by, for example, participating in electoral fraud - from holding government posts or running in parliamentary elections.

Reactivation of the Nasser-era law in the run-up to next month’s parliamentary elections had been a chief demand of almost all of Egypt’s post-revolution political forces.

The law also stipulates that those found guilty of corrupting political life during the 30-year rule of Mubarak be deprived of the right to vote in parliamentary polls or join a political party for a five-year period.

“Offenders can be slapped with one or more of the penalties laid out in the treason law,” Minister of Justice Mohamed Abdel Aziz El-Guindy told flagship daily Al-Ahram. “They might also be forced to return to the state anything that they and their associates purloined through their treasonous acts.”

Criminal Courts will be solely responsible for applying the reactivated law, meaning that defendants will have the right to appeal delivered verdicts.