Interim President Adly Mansour has reformed a law dealing with criminal procedures in Egypt, allowing criminal and cassation courts to extend periods of detention without there being a maximum limit.
The new amendment will affect cases where the punishment is either a life or capital sentence.
The amendment, which was issued following a proposal from the Justice Ministry, allows criminal and cassation courts to order the detention of a defendant for 45 renewable days, without being restricted by Article 143 of the Law on Criminal Procedures.
The article in question states that the period of preventive detention should not exceed two years for defendants appealing a life sentence or execution.
This article allowed the release of former President Hosni Mubarak, who is being retried in the killing of protesters case, after exhausting all possible renewals of preventive detention and the Court of Cassation turned down a life sentence issued against him.
