"Egypt
court orders dissolving of parliament
High
court rules entire parliament should be dismissed because of
"constitutional violations".
14
June, 2012
In
another setback for Egypt's fledgling political process, elected
officials have been disqualified and the lower house of parliament
dissolved.
The
court ruled on Thursday that one third of the seats in the
Islamist-dominated parliament were invalid, stirring fresh
uncertainty in the politically divided country.
The
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the country's ruling
military council, then announced that if any part of the parliament
is illegal, then the entire body should be dissolved.
Egypt's
constitutional court also ruled against a law that would have barred
deposed president Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq
from standing in this weekend's presidential poll runoff.
After
conflicting reports in Egyptian media over whether a third, or the
entire, parliament was to be dismissed, Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh
obtained a copy of the court decision, which explicitly states that
the entire parliament is dismissed because of "constitutional
violations".
Separately,
anonymous sources in the SCAF told Al Jazeera that the military body
will regain legislative authority and form a new constituent assembly
on Friday. Al Jazeera has been unable to confirm this from an
official spokesperson in the SCAF.
'Victory'
speech
Shafiq
welcomed the court rulings in a conference before his supporters,
saying an "era of political score settling" was over.
"The
message of this historic verdict is that the era of political score
settling has ended," Shafik told cheering crowd
in Cairo. "The constitutional court has confirmed my right to
participate in the election and reinforced the
legitimacy
of this election."
Rawya
Rageh said it was "really a victory speech ... addressing
Egyptians almost as president and not as a candidate".
He
praised the military, she noted, and said that the "era of
fear-mongering was over".
At
the same time, he also tried to reach out to supporters of opposition
groups, notably the Muslim Brotherhood and liberal youth protesters.
The
parliament had been elected on a complex electoral system in which
voters cast ballots for party lists which made up two thirds of
parliament, and also for individual candidates for the remaining
seats in the lower house.
Earlier,
when it appeared that the court had dismissed a third of
parliamentarians, speaker Saad al-Katatni, an Islamist, had said
before the ruling that the parliament would have to consider how to
implement it.
In
the absence of a constitution, suspended after last year's overthrow
of Mubarak, no authority had the right to dissolve parliament,
Katatni said.
He
said one possibility would be to hold by-elections for the seats
ruled unconstitutional.
Seeking
to derail presidential bids by senior Mubarak-era officials,
parliament approved the law on April 12 to strip political rights
from anyone who served in top government or ruling party posts in the
last decade of Mubarak's rule.
After
it became clear that the court was dimissin all parliamentarians, the
Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed El-Erian told Reuters that the ruling
would plung the country into a "dark tunnel".
'Must
be dissolved'
An
administrative court had said in February that the election rules
were unconstitutional.
In
that vote, two-thirds of seats were allocated to parties and the rest
to individuals who were supposed to be independent of any party.
Ahead
of the ruling, Judge Mohamed Hamad al-Gamal, a former head of the
state council, said political parties should not have been allowed to
run for the individual seats.
He
also said half, rather than one-third of the seats, should have been
apportioned to individuals.
"If
it is proven that the election rules were flawed or unconstitutional,
then the entire election process is void," Gamal said.
"It
would mean that this parliament is unconstitutional, illegitimate and
must be dissolved."
Under
Mubarak, the Supreme Constitutional Court used similar arguments to
rule election laws illegal in 1987 and 1990, forcing the dissolution
of parliament, overhauls of the electoral system and early elections.
The
based on an informal deal negotiated between parties and the military
council, a political deal that was never given formal approval from a
court, Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal reported from Cairo.
The
decision to still allow Shafiq to run leaves many Egyptians wondering
exactly what the revolution had achieved, aside from ousting Mubarak.
New
decree
Thursday's
judgement comes a day after the justice ministry issued a decree
allowing military police and intelligence officers to arrest
civilians suspected of crimes, restoring some of the powers of the
decades-old emergency law which expired just two weeks ago.
The
controversial order was drafted earlier this month, but was not
announced until Wednesday.
The
decree applies to a range of offences, including those deemed
"harmful to the government", destruction of property,
"obstructing traffic", and "resisting orders".
Several
of those provisions would allow the military to detain peaceful
protesters. Rallies in Tahrir Square, for example, routinely disrupt
traffic.
It
will remain in effect at least until a new constitution is drafted,
according to the ministry.
Egypt
decree grants arrest powers to military
Controversial
order permits arrests for a number of crimes, raising concerns it
replaces lapsed emergency law
13
June, 2012
Egypt's
justice ministry has issued a decree allowing military police and
intelligence officers to arrest civilians suspected of crimes,
restoring some of the powers of the decades-old emergency law which
expired just two weeks ago.
The
controversial order was drafted earlier this month, but was not
announced until Wednesday.
The
decree applies to a range of offences, including those deemed
"harmful to the government," destruction of property,
"obstructing traffic," and "resisting orders".
Several
of those provisions would allow the military to detain peaceful
protesters. Rallies in Tahrir Square routinely disrupt traffic, for
example.
It
will remain in effect at least until a new constitution is drafted,
according to the ministry.
Members
of parliament voted on Tuesday to appoint a constitutional assembly,
but the process of drafting the document could take months.
Adel
al-Mursi, the head of Egypt's military justice, was quoted by AFP
news agency as saying that "the decision fills a legal vacuum",
while Sayyed Hashim, a former military prosecutor, called it a
temporary measure.
"The
police force has not yet recovered completely, and security is not
back," Hashim was quoted by Associated Press news agency as
saying in a television interview.
Parliament
bypassed
Al
Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, said Egyptian activists
see the current order as "much worse than the [previous]
emergency law", in that it is seen as expanding the military's
power.
"And
it comes at a time when the ruling military council is expected to be
handing over authority to a civilian authority in less than two
weeks' time," she said, adding that the order bypassed the newly
elected parliament.
"The
initial reactions from the MPs has been very angry, specifically from
the powerful Muslim Brotherhood. Some of its members are saying that
this is tantamount to a military coup."
Egyptians
elect first new president in post-Mubarak era
The
Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which has the
largest number of seats in parliament, issued a statement on the
controversial decree, suggesting that parliament will try to bring
the issue under its supervision.
The
brief statement quoted the party's deputy president, Essam El Erian,
as saying parliament will be looking into the justice ministry's
right to issue the decision and whether parliament can refuse it or
not.
Parliament
will seek to have oversight over the implementation of the decision
"so that this mandate doesn't exceed its legal and
constitutional limits," El Erian said in the statement.
"The
Egyptian Revolution happened to get rid of injustice, corruption,
autocracy and repression of freedoms - and the Egyptian people won't
accept the return of any of that."
'Military
coup'
Mohamed
Beltagy, another FJP member of parliament, called the decree a
"military coup" in an interview with Al Jazeera, and said
the measure was not discussed in parliament.
Mohammed
Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, said on Al
Jazeera that the decision raises fears about the military's role.
Human
rights organisations were also quick to criticise the decision, which
they said confirmed that Egypt was a "military state".
Gamal
Eid, a prominent human rights lawyer, said the decree made Egypt look
like "a banana republic".
"Several
of the crimes included in the decree are actually rights, such as the
right to freedom of expression against ruling powers or established
laws, demonstrations and strikes," according to a statement
issued by 15 Egyptian rights groups.
The
military has played an extensive and controversial role in the
justice system over the last 18 months. More than 12,000 civilians
have been hauled before military tribunals since the revolution;
rights groups say the military courts do not provide basic standards
of due process.
The
31-year-old state of emergency, imposed in 1981 after Anwar Sadat was
assassinated, was finally allowed to expire at the end of May. It
granted wide-ranging powers to former president Hosni Mubarak's
security forces, including the right to detain suspects without
trial.
Court
rulings
Amr
Hamzawy, a liberal member of parliament from Cairo, said in a
statement on his Facebook page that the ruling simply "reproduced"
the emergency law.
"[It]
reproduces the emergency law using new tools and threatens the state
of law, for it gives military intelligence and military police powers
of judicial execution in crimes committed by civilians," he
wrote.
The
decree comes just days before the country's presidential runoff,
which pits Morsi against Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister in
Mubarak's government.
It
also comes a day before two crucial court rulings. The supreme
constitutional court will decide on Thursday whether to expel Shafiq
from the race because of the so-called "political isolation"
law, which bars ex-regime officials from running for public office.
The
court will also rule on whether parliament is unconstitutional; a
lower court found that some provisions of the electoral law -
allowing political parties to compete with independent candidates for
some seats - might have violated the constitution.
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