Sisi prepares law criminalising offence to "January 25 and June 30 revolutions"

Wednesday 03-12-2014 12:34 PM
Sisi prepares law criminalising offence to

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi giving a speech on the occasion of the Tenth of Ramadan/Six of October 1973 war - Aswat Masriya

By

CAIRO, Dec 3 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced on Tuesday night that a law criminalising any offence to the "January 25 and the June 30 revolutions" is currently being drafted.

In a meeting with a group of media practitioners, Sisi said the legislation will be presented to the cabinet as soon as it is drafted to prepare for its issuance.

The decision comes amid a wave of controversy which proliferated through Egypt’s media following the acquittal of former President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday. The court dropped the charges pressed against Mubarak over complicity in the killing of protesters during the January 2011 uprising which toppled his regime, prompting some media practitioners to criticise the uprising.

In a 280-page document released by Judge Mahmoud al-Rashidi, who headed Mubarak’s trial, the judge cited the testimony of several witnesses in the case, including late General Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, former Defence Minsiter Hussein Tantawi and other members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) which ruled Egypt following the uprising in February 2011 and until June 2012.

The judge, in the document, commended the personality of the cited witnesses, adopting their vision of the 2011 uprising as per their testimonies.

The document referred to an "axis of evil" comprising of the United States, Israel, Iran, Turkey and Qatar.

It accused the aforementioned states of mandating "foreign organisations" to recruit a "minority of youth for ignoble goals" and "training them to hold protests, sit-ins and civil disobedience … to paralyse the state and stall its activities."

It said that those youths used the "colourful revolutions of their people" as a means to achieving such goals.

The Cairo Criminal Court also acquitted on Saturday Mubarak’s Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and six of his aides over complicity in the murder of protesters during the January 2011 uprising.

The verdict sparked wide dissent and prompted nationwide protests, specifically among university students.

Two protesters demonstrating against the verdict were killed, and 14 others were injured Saturday evening in clashes with police forces in Abdel Moniem Riad Square in downtown Cairo, the ministry of health said.

Mubarak and his interior minister were sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for the same charges before an appeals court ordered their retrial. The retrial began in April, 2013.

In May, a Cairo court sentenced Mubarak to three years in prison on embezzlement charges.

He is serving time in a military hospital in Cairo, where he returned upon Saturday's ruling.

facebook comments