The Egyptian government has been given a 30-day deadline to present a new version of the Criminal Procedures Law before the parliament to speed up trial procedures in terrorism cases, the head of Egypt's House of Representatives legislative and constitutional affairs' committee was quoted as saying by state-news agency MENA on Tuesday.
"The government will be committed to presenting a new version of the law before the parliament during the 30 days, and if it fails to do so, the parliament has the right to act upon article 101 of the house organisational regulations and present its own version of the law, if it is approved by 10 percent of MPs (60 seats)," Bahaa Abu Shoka said.
Abu Shoka affirmed that MPs are aiming to create a "legislative revolution" to both the criminal procedures law and penal code, which will be followed by a large conference gathering judiciary experts and veterans within days to discuss the new law.
Around 100 Egyptian MPs proposed on Monday that the Criminal Procedures Law, issued in 1950, be changed to help the country overcome terrorism.
Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal affirmed the house is determined to uproot terrorism and obliterate "dark forces" in Egypt, even if this requires amending the country's 2014 constitution.
After attending on Monday a state funeral for 23 Coptic Christians killed in the St Peter and St Paul church bombing a day earlier, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said that the judiciary’s hands are “chained" by old laws amid an imminent threat from terrorism.
President El-Sisi's call to amend laws is not the first time he has done so. Following the assassination of Prosecutor-General Hisham Barakat in June 2015, he urged the need to implement harsher counter-terrorism laws.
