The cabinet is to discuss a new bill that, according to a draft text obtained by the Daily News Egypt, aims to combat “genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression”.
The draft law will be debated before its presentation to the president, who has the right to approve the law in the absence of parliament. The punishments outlined in the draft range from the death penalty to extended imprisonment for each crime committed, and grants protection to special groups under specific circumstances.
The draft specifies that, if approved, anyone holding Egyptian nationality, stateless persons, or permanent residents of Egypt will be subject to the law. The law will also be applied to those who commit the crimes onboard an aircraft or land or water transport vehicle registered in Egypt or flying the Egyptian flag.
The law would be applied equally to those intending to commit, plan, supervise, or fund the crimes
Individuals located in Egypt but hold foreign nationality when committing or attempting to commit the crimes are also subject to the law’s penalties. The draft law specifies various levels of punishments for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression that range from imprisonment and death. In Article 8, entitled “The Crime of Genocide”, the law stipulates a punishment of death by hanging, or imprisonment for no less than ten years for guilty parties. This includes individuals proven to have committed acts that bring about the destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group in whole or in part. This includes the murder of individual members of that group, inflicting bodily or mental harm on any of its members, or imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
In Article 9, entitled “Crimes Against Humanity”, punishments ranging between execution and extended imprisonment for no less than ten years is stipulated for anyone who commits these crimes as part of a widespread, systematic attack against a civilian population in accordance with the policy of a state or organisation that lends support to the attack. This includes the intentional killing of a person within the population, imposing harsh living conditions with the goal of destroying parts of these populations, deporting a person or group with legal residency status within that population, or forcibly relocating the population to another location or state in violation of the law.
The punishment is stipulated for each individual that deprives a person of physical liberty or inflicts extreme pain or suffering on another person, amongst other items.
The draft law also provides for a punishment ranging between execution or life imprisonment for any individual that commits war crimes in the context of a domestic or international armed conflict. Under the law, no less than five years imprisonment and a fine of no more than EGP 500,000 will be levied against anyone who, in the context of an international conflict, deprives a prisoner of judicial guarantees, forces a prisoner to serve among the ranks of an enemy state, or forces a prisoner to participate in a military confrontation with his own state.
The same penalty will be levied against those who commit war crimes against other properties, and the draft law also provides for execution or life imprisonment for any individual that commits war crimes or crimes of aggression.
