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:: Archive > Military Tribunal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() Military Courts: Long History of Human Right Violations
The decision of transferring the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) second deputy chairman Khairat Al Shater and 39 other MB leaders to a military court reopened the file of Egyptian military tribunals and the suffering of the Egyptian people, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood group, due to violating the simplest human right, i.e. that the one is tried in front of a civil judge who secures a fair trial.
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Saturday, February 10,2007 00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The decision of transferring the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) second deputy chairman Khairat Al Shater and 39 other MB leaders to a military court reopened the file of Egyptian military tribunals and the suffering of the Egyptian people, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood group, due to violating the simplest human right, i.e. that the one is tried in front of a civil judge who secures a fair trial. The Egyptian regime is a leading regime in using the emergency laws as it has been using the emergency laws since president Mubarak assumed office in 1981, i.e. 25 years during which the emergency law was mischievously used to the extent that the number of detainees reached nowadays about 18 thousand political detainees. Add to this regularly transferring civilians to military courts without any need for doing so; transferring civilians to military tribunals was only up to the whims of Mubarak and his regime without taking into consideration the defendants’ right to defend themselves. We will discuss in this report some of the powers of the military tribunals, the difference between them and civilian courts, the date of starting these trials in the modern age in Egypt, in addition to a table that shows the military tribunals against the Muslim Brotherhood members. 1- The Military Justice in Egyptian Legislations, International Covenants Concerned with Human Rights . The law no. 25 of the year 1966 amended by law no. 1 of the year 1983 organized the authorities of forming military tribunals. This law violates the principle of consistency and unity of justice, as usurps the authority of the ordinary civil courts, and denies the citizen his rights to appear before a civil judge. This law stipulates: This law denies civilians their right to appear before the civilian judges to be tried for crimes not related to the military system both in ordinary or emergency conditions and to appear in front of a judicial authority with an exceptional nature. Many guarantees of specialization, independence and neutrality which are supposed to be found in the civilian courts as prescribed in the 14th article of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, are mostly absent under the military justice. This is because the military tribunals which are exclusively consisting of military officers don’t condition that these officers have any appropriate legal license. Also, the independence of the military tribunals is marred because they are part of the public administration of military justice which is affiliated to the High Command of the Armed Forces. Add to this that their judges remain in this post for two years and can be dismissed at any time. This law doesn’t have any text that obliges the rulings issued by the military tribunals to be supervised by a higher Court to observes a right application of the law, as the rulings are ratified by the president as he is the supreme commander of the armed forces or any authorized officer from the Armed Forces. The military law violates the general principles adopted in the code of criminal procedure as it doesn’t define a maximum period for provisional detentions. Accordingly, the rulings of this law conflict with Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that states in the first item that:" All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law.....". and that states in its fifth item that:" Everyone convicted of a crime shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law." For the same reasons, the texts of this law contradict with" the basic principles of the judiciary independence", that state in the fifth article that:" Every one has the right to be tried in front of civil courts or judicial authorities that apply the prescribed legal procedures. It is not permissible to establish judicial authorities that don’t apply the scheduled legal procedures according to the principles of the judicial measures, in a way that may remove the judicial power of ordinary courts". More accurately clearly, the military tribunals lack the criteria of a fair trial approved by article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which consist of the following: 1-Equality is in front of justice .
2-Military Tribunals, Lacking Guarantees of Fair Trial Although the Egyptian law guarantees giving enough time for defendants to defend themselves, it ignored the factor of time in the military tribunals.
Transferring civilian suspects in terrorism cases to military tribunals in Egypt started when president Hosni Mubarak issued a decision of referring 48 suspects in the cases of the returnees from Afghanistan and the Jihad Organization to the Supreme Military Tribunal in Alexandria in late October 1992. The court sentenced death sentences against eight defendants, including seven fugitives. This took place on Dec., 3rd 1992, although the Administrative Court in the State Council issued a ruling on Dec., 8, 1992, of canceling the decision of referring the defendants to the Supreme Military Tribunal according to Article 6 of the military law that did not entitle the president to refer specific cases or specific persons that were included in the presidential decree. 4-Well-Known Military Tribunals Against the Muslim Brotherhood Starting from 1995, seven military tribunals were held against Muslim Brotherhood leaders, the latest of which was transferring Eng. Khairat Al Shater and 39 Muslim Brotherhood leaders to a military tribunal, to rais to 180 the number of MB members referred to this unconstitutional tribunal. The following table shows military courts against the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) from 1995 to 200:7 A table shows military courts against the Muslim Brotherhood (MB)
This is a little part of a painful reality that the Egyptian people are living under the rule of Mubarak’s terrorist regime that ignored all Egyptian and international laws to maintain power, even if the cost is to survive on the ruins of the Egyptian people. |
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tags: Al Shater / Military Court / Military Tribunals / Emergency Law / Mubarak / Political Detainees / Egyptian Regime / Civilian Courts / State Security / Human Rights
Posted in Military Tribunal , MB News , Military Tribunal , MB News , Military Tribunal , MB News , Military Tribunal , MB News |
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