Egypt’s justice ministry on Wednesday issued a decree authorising military-intelligence officers and military-police officers to arrest civilians for non-military crimes, a right previously reserved for police officers alone.
The decree, drafted earlier this month and announced in the state official newspaper on Wednesday, is reportedly based on Military Judiciary Law 25 of 1966. According to the ministry, the law will remain in effect until a new constitution is drafted.
Egypt's new national charter, and the mechanisms employed for selecting members of the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting it, remains an issue of enormous controversy. On Monday, liberal and leftist figures walked out of the assembly – for the second time – after accusing Egypt’s Islamist parties of attempting to monopolise the constitution-drafting process.
Rights lawyer Gamal Eid told Ahram Online that the justice ministry’s published declaration did not represent a law per se, but rather a ministerial decree that still required parliamentary approval.
Rights organisations are currently in the process of drafting a response to the contentious decree, which has already sparked outcry among Egypt’s various post-revolution political forces.
