Public controversy in Egypt has been escalating for weeks over the draft new Criminal Procedure Law and a number of its articles, which jurists and human rights defenders have described as catastrophic, including Article 267 of the bill, on banning the publication of news about court session proceedings.
That article drew objections from the Journalists Syndicate and press circles, which considered it an attempt to restrict the press through the back door. While the Legislative Committee of the House of Representatives agreed to delete the article from the bill at the request of MP Mohamed Abdel Aziz, deputy head of the Human Rights Committee, with the support of MPs Emad Khalil and Ahmed El-Sharkawy, press circles considered that there are other arbitrary articles restricting journalists, most importantly Article (266), which bans the transmission or broadcast of session proceedings by any means except with the written approval of the head of the court circuit after the permission of the Public Prosecution.
In addition, Article (15) allows the criminal court at both levels or the Court of Cassation to bring a criminal case against a perpetrator if acts occur outside the session that could influence witnesses or breach the court’s orders, and Article (13) grants the first-instance criminal court the right to add new defendants to the case and refer them to the Public Prosecution for investigation, in addition to a number of articles that some considered harmful to justice, relating to the expansion of the powers of judicial enforcement bodies and granting them investigative powers in detention centres.
The head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, Khaled El-Balshy, had stressed that Parliament opened the door to internal discussions without dialogue on a comprehensive amendment of the law, which covered 550 articles, giving many groups the impression that something was being plotted, and that the bill came as if to legalise an exceptional situation instead of seeking to change it, even in line with the Constitution’s provisions. He explained that turning the Constitution’s articles on rights and freedoms into applicable legal articles requires integrated efforts and the combining of all visions, with the utmost care and after extensive discussions involving all specialised and interested experts. He noted that there is haste on the part of some parties, or within Parliament, to pass this bill, without a declared and legitimate reason, despite repeated demands to postpone its consideration and put it to a genuine societal dialogue involving all parties.
The syndicate head added in his speech on the sidelines of the conference on the draft Criminal Procedure Law last Tuesday: “In less than two weeks, the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee finished its work and approved more than three quarters of the articles previously drafted by the subcommittee, making amendments whose nature is unknown, and considered 11 September its final meeting to approve the bill and refer it to Parliament. It accompanied this with a fierce attack on the law’s critics, which magnifies the questions about the reason, sends messages that the law will pass inevitably, and closes the door to any discussion. This leads us to demand the withdrawal of this catastrophic bill and a halt to its discussion until all parties are seriously heard.”
The syndicate head considered that responding to the syndicate’s demand to delete Article (267) sent a positive signal, but some may have expected this response to be a door through which the Journalists Syndicate would exit the scene, whereas the syndicate aims to defend the rights and freedoms of the whole society, since a law that undermines rights and freedoms is a law that restricts the press and undermines its freedom; journalists do not work in isolation from the general climate. He noted that the syndicate has professional demands within the law relating to Articles (15 and 266), which do not come in isolation from its position on the law as a whole, as (41) of the bill’s articles violate the Constitution, and (44) articles need radical amendments, including at least two articles related to press work. He stressed that approving any amendments to the pretrial detention articles without urgent measures to settle the painful file of detainees would send a message that the amendments are mere ink on paper, according to the speech of the head of the Journalists Syndicate, calling for the release of 16 journalists held in pretrial detention, out of 23 journalists imprisoned or sentenced, whose pretrial detention has exceeded two full years without trial, in addition to a number of journalists being banned from travel or from disposing of their money, property and some of their belongings after being placed on asset-freeze lists.
El-Balshy said that the current draft Criminal Procedure Law fails to meet many standards, because some of its provisions blatantly violate the Constitution, and it contains two provisions that can be used to restrict press work. Most of the provisions covered by the study restrict journalists’ ability to work freely and place them under a direct threat that limits their freedom and subjects them to procedures that undermine their freedom and that of everyone, and the bill undermines the Constitution’s articles on litigation and the justice system. It does not treat the prosecuting authority and its rights equally with the defence and its rights and guarantees, favouring the former over the latter; it does not allow appeals to the judiciary against the Public Prosecution’s decisions on the course of the investigation, does not give the defendant and his counsel the right to request the annulment of procedures if their invalidity becomes apparent at the trial stage, makes an in absentia threatening judgment enforceable, does not guarantee that the Public Prosecution completes investigations in a timely manner, and puts the defendant at the mercy of the executive authority during remote investigation and trial proceedings.
The syndicate head’s speech was preceded by a demand from the Journalists Syndicate’s Freedoms Committee for the release of all imprisoned journalists, syndicate members and non-members alike, who number 23, including nine members of the Journalists Syndicate, and for a pardon for those sentenced, within the framework of the law and the Constitution. In a statement last Sunday, the committee stressed that applying the current pretrial detention articles requires the immediate release of 16 journalists, demanding the lifting of restrictions that shackle journalists’ movement and prevent them from obtaining information. It considered that the draft Criminal Procedure Law undermines the efforts of the national dialogue, and that it was put forward for discussion in a way that raises many question marks and does not match the aspirations of Egyptian society to amend a law that is a cornerstone of the Egyptian judicial system, expressing its solidarity with the legal opinions objecting to the bill and with efforts for the law to emerge in a form that protects society’s rights and provides the necessary guarantees for citizens’ rights to fair judicial procedures according to abstract, clear provisions not open to interpretation.
The Legislative Committee Attacks the Syndicate Head
After concluding its discussion of the draft Criminal Procedure Law, the Legislative Committee of the House of Representatives criticised the speech of the head of the Journalists Syndicate on the law in a statement on Wednesday, saying that “freedom of opinion does not mean distorting facts under the pretext of freedom of expression, and that it will not stand idly by in the face of malicious allegations aimed at confusing public opinion and shaking confidence in state institutions, even if they come from people hiding behind the wall of freedom of opinion”. It threatened that it would not allow public opinion to be manipulated or misled under any name, claiming that freedom is not an absolute right without controls and that it is being used to harm society’s interest and politicise issues.
The committee described the syndicate head’s speech as lacking accuracy and containing blatant fallacies, and as making accusations against the House of Representatives that amount to deliberate falsehood and the stirring of public opinion without any objective basis.
The House Legislative Committee’s statement sparked angry reactions in press, media, human rights and political circles, and many public figures declared their solidarity with the head of the Journalists Syndicate against the committee’s statement, most prominently former presidential candidate and human rights lawyer Khaled Ali, who explained that the Journalists Syndicate council did not limit itself to amending the article on practising journalism and covering judicial matters that was contained in the draft Criminal Procedure Law, nor did it pursue narrow professional selectivity in addressing the bill’s provisions, but presented a complete and comprehensive vision drawing on legal experts, noting that all the provisions of this law apply to journalists and their children like the rest of the Egyptian people.
The former presidential candidate added in a post on Facebook: “Instead of appreciating this role, we were surprised by a strange statement from the subcommittee for legislative and constitutional affairs, heaping accusations and carrying all forms of threats and intimidation. It was not appropriate to issue such a miserable statement, and I think an apology for it is due. As for the Journalists Syndicate council, they deserve every appreciation for the effort they are making to present an impressive syndicate experience worthy of all respect and esteem.”
Human rights lawyer Negad El-Borai, a member of the national dialogue’s board of trustees, announced that “everything the head of the Journalists Syndicate said in his press conference is from the legal paper that he himself presented to the syndicate head together with lawyers Mohamed El-Baqer and Ahmed Ragheb, and that he is responsible for every word he said and is a partner in it”.
In a post on his Facebook account, El-Borai demanded that the committee publish the amendments it says it made to the draft submitted to it by the subcommittee and the reasons for each amendment; respond legally to the constitutional and legal challenges submitted regarding the bill’s articles it did not amend, especially on pretrial detention, travel bans and the failure to allow those harmed to bring a criminal case directly against public officials who violate rights and freedoms; and change the person who writes its statements, because the language he uses should not come from a committee of one of the oldest legislative councils in the region.
Writer, thinker and political analyst Ammar Ali Hassan considers that the most dangerous aspect of the House of Representatives’ attack on the head of the Journalists Syndicate, after the statement the syndicate issued containing observations on the Criminal Procedure Law, is that the council, which is formally supposed to represent the people, behaves as if it is above observation, criticism and reproach, and accuses those who disagree with it of working to incite people. This is an accusation that has long opened the door to accusing some public figures of lacking patriotism, belonging to terrorist organisations or even treason, as we have grown used to in the last decade, as he put it.
Hassan said in a post on his X account that the council, which everyone near and far sees as failing to perform its role of oversight, legislation and representing the nation, mobilises only in the wrong directions and aims its arrows only at the heads of those who deserve to be greeted by the people with roses, explaining that every Egyptian, not only journalists and lawyers, is concerned with this law, which will turn people’s lives into a more savage jungle.
Political activist Hossam Moanis, campaign manager for former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, affirmed his support and solidarity with the head of the Journalists Syndicate in his position, which he described as a respectable syndicate, professional, national, political and constitutional stance in rejecting the current draft Criminal Procedure Law, based on the opinions, observations and concerns of professional syndicates, political and national forces, public figures and major legal figures.
In a post on Facebook, Moanis denounces the failure of the House Legislative and Constitutional Committee to find real remedies, rather than partial amendments, for the provisions of the bill it approved, and its issuing instead of a statement in this language against the head of the Journalists Syndicate. He calls for halting the procedures for approving and issuing the bill in its current form and stopping the strange haste over it before it turns into a new battle that no sensible person needs in the current circumstances, considering that passing it with its current disputed provisions cannot go unnoticed.
Politician and former MP Haitham El-Hariri described the House Legislative Committee’s statement, which attacks and intimidates the Journalists Syndicate council and its head because of their patriotic, strong and clear position on a “bad law” that the House of Representatives is discussing and will soon issue, like the vast majority of laws issued in the last ten years, as shameful and saddening, as he put it.
El-Hariri said in a post on his Facebook account: “In my name and in my capacity, I declare my full support and solidarity with the head of the Journalists Syndicate and the syndicate council against this intimidation by the people’s representatives, and I declare my rejection of issuing such a law, which legalises falsehood and destroys what remains of justice, freedom and security.”
The Battle to Preserve the Justice System
For his part, the head of the Journalists Syndicate, Khaled El-Balshy, refuses to respond to the statement of the House Legislative Committee, which many in press, media and human rights circles see as offensive, stressing to Zawia3 that he will not be drawn into personalising matters, and that the battle the syndicate is now waging is to preserve the justice system in Egypt, not only to defend press freedom. He explains that Article (267) has been deleted from the draft, but the syndicate still has reservations about other articles, most importantly Articles (15 and 266).
The head of Egypt’s journalists stresses that the new draft Criminal Procedure Law does not affect a particular syndicate or group but society as a whole, as it relates to arrest and trial procedures and therefore affects the justice system in society as a whole, and will affect journalists’ ability to do their work, so the Journalists Syndicate will continue its efforts to confront this bill.
Khaled El-Balshy, head of the Journalists Syndicate, had declared his full solidarity, personally and in his capacity, with everything stated in the Bar Association’s statement on the draft Criminal Procedure Law.
He said in a post on his personal Facebook account, published on 26 August, that the Criminal Procedure Law is the main pillar of the justice system and its constitution, that its provisions complement the Constitution, and that it will remain one of the pillars protecting and safeguarding the rights and freedoms of individuals and communities at all stages of litigation, and any flaw affecting it undermines the pillars of this system and erodes citizens’ confidence in the justice system. He stressed that the law will remain a matter of concern to every Egyptian and to all institutions of society concerned with rights and freedoms and with achieving and supporting justice, announcing that he was joining the Bar Association’s demands in his capacity and personally, and warning against discussing the law away from a comprehensive societal dialogue involving all pillars of the justice system, citizens, their representatives and institutions concerned with public rights, which would reflect a major flaw and have dire consequences for everyone.
Abolishing the Philosophy of Criminal Justice in Egypt
Human rights lawyer Malek Adly, director of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, believes the crisis between the Journalists Syndicate and the House Legislative Committee was manufactured by the latter, because at the level of parliamentary practice there is no reason for any representative of Parliament to be annoyed by any citizen’s objection to a bill, especially syndicates connected to it, such as the journalists’ and lawyers’ syndicates, given that the Criminal Procedure Law is one of the most important laws in Egypt, and that people’s fears about the bill should push Parliament to reopen discussion of it and re-present its articles.
Adly tells Zawia3: “We object to the philosophy of the new draft Criminal Procedure Law, because it is a law that penalises the authorities, meaning that if you violate any of its provisions, the procedure you carried out is void, and this is what distinguishes states from gangs and militias. But the bill gives the prosecution the right to conduct investigations without a lawyer present, provides that any void procedure carried out in the presence of a lawyer cannot be invoked before the court, sets no time limits for travel bans or asset freezes, makes in absentia judgments enforceable with consequences, and expands judicial enforcement powers to include police delegates and assistants, which abolishes the philosophy of criminal justice in Egypt, diminishes citizens’ guarantees and makes it impossible to file a complaint against the prosecution. In most of its articles it gives permission for void procedures, diminishes the role of the defence, attacks the freedom to cover trials and more, and exaggerates witness protection to extend it to officers who write up police reports, which throws the justice system out of the window.”
The human rights lawyer reveals that the bill gives the court the right to correct a void procedure, gives the prosecution the right not to investigate cases and to refer them directly to trial, allows the prosecution to interrogate the defendant without a lawyer present, and does not allow the lawyer to speak before the prosecution except with permission, to record his observations, or to photocopy the case papers unless the prosecution sees fit, which takes Egypt’s criminal justice system 300 years back and turns citizens into second-class humans. He notes that the value of the Criminal Procedure Law lies in the fact that when a judicial enforcement officer or representative of the prosecuting authority makes a mistake, this results in acquittal, and more than 50% of acquittals issued by the criminal courts and the Court of Cassation are procedural acquittals, so the Ministry of Interior used to train its officers to respect the Criminal Procedure Law so that defendants would not turn into victims.
He adds: “We have the right to fear for ourselves as citizens from this law, which deprives citizens of the right to bring a case directly against a judicial enforcement officer or police officers if they violate one of their rights. MPs are supposed to take into account citizens’ fears and their sense of being threatened by the bill, not defend it, because they are supposed to be representatives of the people who respect their wishes and fears. The bill is rejected by civil society institutions, the journalists’ and lawyers’ syndicates, the Judges Club and human rights circles, and it has mobilised them despite the closure of the public sphere.”
Discussing Amendments
Zawia3 spoke by phone with MP Ehab El-Tamawy. Asked about the controversy over the new draft Criminal Procedure Law and the House Legislative Committee’s statement, he denies that there is any crisis between the House and the Journalists Syndicate, explaining that the House issued its new statement to remove confusion about the draft Criminal Procedure Law.
Following the wide controversy sparked by the parliamentary Legislative Committee’s statement, the House of Representatives issued a statement on Thursday evening on the Criminal Procedure Law, in which it stressed its keenness to accommodate all opinions, said it was weighing the available alternatives to choose the best of them in the public interest, and said it still opens its doors to discuss any amendments some may see as necessary to the new draft Criminal Procedure Law, as long as they aim to establish a swift justice system and seek to strengthen public rights and freedoms.
The House of Representatives announced that its Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee concluded its work on Wednesday on studying the draft Criminal Procedure Law prepared by its subcommittee and approved it definitively, having been assigned this task by the House at the end of the previous session. It considered the new draft Criminal Procedure Law an important step in modernising Egypt’s legal system, aimed at achieving a qualitative shift in the philosophy of criminal procedure, as it gives the Public Prosecution broader powers to initiate criminal cases, making it the original authority in investigating, initiating and pursuing criminal cases in application of Article (189) of the Constitution. It also includes a set of guarantees that strengthen human rights, including reducing the duration of pretrial detention, restricting the powers of judicial enforcement officers in arrest and search, and setting rules for compensating defendants for wrongful pretrial detention. The bill also includes an integrated framework for protecting witnesses, whistleblowers, defendants and victims, provides facilities for people with disabilities during investigation and trial, and regulates the gradual transition to digital notification and remote investigation and trial, according to the statement.
The House noted that it had studied the recommendations of the national dialogue’s Committee on Human Rights and Public Freedoms on pretrial detention and criminal justice and incorporated a number of them into the new draft Criminal Procedure Law, while some recommendations are still under study, most importantly expanding the registration of civil associations and foundations aimed at supporting the reintegration of individuals and removing procedural obstacles to their return to work or study and the resumption of their normal lives, stressing that the most appropriate place to apply these recommendations is some specialised laws, and that nothing in law, whether the Labour Law or the Civil Service Law, prevents a person held in pretrial detention from returning to work after release.
Commenting on the House statement, human rights lawyer Khaled Ali considered that it came to correct the errors of the previous statements, saying in a post on his X account last night, Thursday: “After the bad statements issued in recent days, which included threats, intimidation and a monopoly on truth and the national interest, the House of Representatives has just issued a measured statement, and its last clause came to correct the errors made in the previous statements.”
A History of Struggle
The battle the Journalists Syndicate is waging against the articles of the new draft Criminal Procedure Law that restrict freedoms and threaten the justice system is not the first it has fought with the authorities over its history of about 82 years; for decades, the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate has been known as independent, defending Egyptian journalists’ rights to practise their profession and expressing the opinions and demands of the Egyptian people.
The press faced clashes in the monarchy era because of censorship of newspapers, especially during the Second World War, and there were numerous cases of journalists being imprisoned, including journalist Abu El-Kheir Naguib, who criticised King Farouk and was imprisoned for a few days. In the 1950s and 1960s, the authorities nationalised the press through the Press Organisation Law issued by former president Gamal Abdel Nasser in May 1960.
The Journalists Syndicate fought battles to defend journalists during that period, as many of them were arrested. In the 1970s, the syndicate’s headquarters saw protests against the plans of former president Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat to turn the syndicate into a mere social club for journalists, and many journalists were arrested during his rule. The syndicate also strongly opposed normalisation with the Israeli occupation after the signing of the Camp David Accords, and clashed with the authorities during the rule of ousted president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak over the issuing of Press Law No. 96 of 1996, which tightened the application of prison sentences for journalists in publishing cases, and newspapers were also subjected to closure and confiscation.
In 2016, the Public Prosecution referred the then head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, Yahia Kalash, the syndicate’s secretary-general Gamal Abdel Rahim, and its deputy head Khaled El-Balshy to an expedited criminal trial before the misdemeanour court on charges of harbouring journalists for whom a judicial arrest warrant had been issued.
