Representatives of most political parties in the House of Representatives provisionally approved the new draft Criminal Procedures Law following a three-day debate of the 540-article bill.

At the beginning of the debate on Sunday, House Speaker Hanafi Gebali said once approved in principle in the coming days the draft law can be discussed and voted on article-by-article in upcoming sessions.

“During the final discussion, the House will be keen to receive ideas and proposals because it believes constructive dialogue leads to balanced and credible legislation,” said Gebali.

What is most important to the House in general, Gebali continued, is that the new Criminal Procedures Law conforms with Egypt’s constitution and international conventions on human rights.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Political Communications Mahmoud Fawzi noted that Egypt’s first Criminal Procedures Law was issued in 1950 and has seen many amendments over decades, with the most significant changes made in September 2024.

The new draft bill, said Fawzi, comprises six main chapters covering criminal prosecution, evidence collection, courts, appeals, enforcement and international judicial cooperation in criminal matters, and includes substantial changes.

The bill sets the procedures for investigating, prosecuting, and trying criminal cases, and ensures the justice system is transparent and fair. It protects the rights of both the accused and victims, maintaining public order while safeguarding individual freedoms, said Fawzi.

It gives police officers the right to search homes only after obtaining a judicial warrant. Defendants have an automatic right to be represented by lawyers, and the new legislation includes provisions allowing the use of modern technology to notify defendants of legal proceedings and conduct remote trials.

Minister of Justice Adnan Al-Fangari said the most significant changes concern regulations governing criminal proceedings, guaranteeing fair trials and reducing the maximum length of pretrial detention. The law also regulates financial compensation for those wrongly detained, travel bans, and asset freezes.

The new Criminal Procedures Law comes ahead of the United National Human Rights Council’s periodic review of Egypt’s human rights record, scheduled for 28 January 2025, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told MPs, at a time when Egypt is preparing to contest the election of UNHRC board members.

“The new draft law, once approved, will mark a significant step in implementing Egypt’s National Strategy for Human Rights,” said Abdelatty. “The strategy is not intended to satisfy any external force but aims to serve the best interests of the Egyptian people.”

Abdelatty also noted that the Standing Supreme Committee for Human Rights (SSCHR) and the National Dialogue are overseeing the implementation of the strategy. The SSCHR, acting under the directives of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, is making every effort to improve human rights conditions in Egypt based on democratic principles, non-discrimination,and the rule of law.

In his statement before the House on Sunday, Abdelatty said that since its launch in 2021, the SSCHR has formulated a comprehensive approach based on an inclusive national vision which “has led to the refutation of claims that seek to tarnish the image and reputation of Egypt in the field of human rights”.

“Egypt remains committed to continuous coordination and consultation with the House of Representatives,” he added.

Initial approval of the draft Criminal Procedures law comes after the Press Syndicate, the Bar Association, and the National Dialogue’s Board of Trustees expressed reservations over the proposed amendments.

The Bar Association said the draft bill gives excessive powers to police officers and imposes restrictions on lawyers defending clients before courts. On Sunday, however, Bar Association head Abdel-Halim Allam told MPs that the House’s Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee had already intervened to address some of the syndicate’s concerns and that the syndicate will now wait to see the final wording of the law’s most contentious articles.

Press Syndicate head Khaled Al-Balshi said journalists and lawyers agree that the draft bill does not go far enough in terms of restricting pretrial detention. According to Al-Balshi, the arbitrary use of pretrial detention has led to dozens of journalists being held in custody for indefinite periods of time.

“The law should oblige authorities to release people as soon as the pretrial detention period ends. That way, detention becomes a precautionary measure rather than punishment,” said Al-Balshi.

The Board of Trustees of the National Dialogue complained that many of its recommendations on pretrial detention had been excluded from the draft.

Board member Emadeddin Hussein said the National Dialogue had submitted three amendments to Article 143 regulating pretrial detention. The first, said Hussein, specified that defendants could be placed under electronic surveillance rather than face pretrial detention, the second proposed house arrest as an alternative to custodial detention, while the third reduced the period of pretrial detention to three months for misdemeanours, six months for felonies and one year for crimes that carry the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The draft bill, however, reduces the maximum period of pretrial detention for misdemeanours from six to four months, for felonies from 18 to 12 months, and for crimes that carry the death penalty or life imprisonment from 24 to 18 months.

The Egyptian National Democratic Party and the Islamist Nour Party declared their opposition to the draft bill on Monday. Spokesperson of the Egyptian National Democratic Party Mona Abdel-Nasser said the bill “failed to provide alternatives to pretrial detention and does not specify financial compensation for those wrongly detained.” She recommended that discussion of the bill be postponed to allow time to build a consensus over contentious articles.

In response, head of the House’s Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee Ibrahim Al-Heneidi said some of the changes proposed by the Press Syndicate and the Bar Association had been adopted by the committee. He cited the removal of Article 267 from the draft in order to enhance the freedom of journalists in covering trials and court sessions but added that “other changes were rejected because they were not in line with the constitution and the principles declared by the Supreme Constitutional Court.”

* A version of this article appears in print in the 7 November, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.