(AFP File Photo)
The cabinet commissioned the ministers of Justice, Transitional Justice and Investment to draft a law protecting the actions taken by Senior State officials, given that they are based on good intentions, or “with no criminal intent” in its Wednesday meeting.
The cabinet’s decision was included in the statement it issued after its meeting.
The office of the Minister of Justice Adel Abdel Hamid refused to disclose any information about the prospective draft law, saying that “there is no information about this law yet”.
However, the prospective draft law stirred several reactions.
Al-Nour Party Chairman Younes Makhioun said in a statement he issued that this prospective law aims at “protecting corruption and immunising the corrupt”.
“We demand laws that protect the people from the officials’ corruption,” Makhioun added.
Constitutional expert Tharwat Badawy said that this law “will legalise corruption, encourage the corrupt and will urge them to go on with their corruption”.
Badawy insisted that this law “is absolutely unconstitutional, as every citizen is responsible for his actions even if they are based on good intentions; each and every citizen must be equal in front of law”. He also described the law as “extremely abnormal, and [one that] might lead to a new revolution”.
Human Rights lawyer Gamal Eid said that the law aims at “immunising senior state officials, and hallows impunity”.
Eid added that in the case that this law is ratified, “it will transform Egypt to a middle-age province where the nobles do whatever they want”.
Al-Dostour Party spokesman Khaled Dawood said: “There is no need to issue such a law in the current time, and the government should be much more careful when suggesting such laws.” However, he preferred to comment in detail once a draft law is written and published.
The censure of the prospective draft law adds to the wave of the criticism directed towards the recently drafted Protest and Terrorism laws.
