Egypt’s ongoing expansion of military jurisdiction under the pretext of economic development and public safety is yet another indicator that its revolution was stillborn. Although the military has long been a key political player, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s regime has promoted the military to the helm of Egypt’s political and economic affairs. In parallel, there has been an unprecedented expansion of military trials of civilians to serve the interests of the military generals governing the country.
Concerns over trying civilians in military courts have long been a priority for Egypt’s human rights community. Established by Law 25 of 1966, military courts were used extensively by the Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak regimes to try political dissidents. Pursuant to Article 6 of Military Judiciary Law, Mubarak frequently exercised his discretion to transfer civilians to military courts when emergency law was in effect—nearly all thirty years of his tenure. As a result, under Mubarak, military courts tried over 12,000 civilians. Since his removal, the number has only gone up. In 2011 alone, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces aggressively exercised its executive authority to order an additional 12,000 civilians tried in military courts for crimes ranging from “thuggery” to insulting the military. After eighteen months of vocal protest, the loathed emergency law—which authorized military trials of civilians—was left to expire in May 2012. This explains in part why Mohamed Morsi’s regime did not try as many political dissidents in military courts.
Since coming to power, Sisi has not needed an emergency law to legalize military trials of civilians. Strong public support and the absence of a parliament allowed Sisi to issue hundreds of presidential decrees unilaterally, many of which undermined the rule of law. Among them were laws that effectively guarantee an increase in civilians tried in military court. The first came on October 27, 2014, after a deadly attack killed 22 soldiers in North Sinai. Sisi issued Law 136 of 2014, which granted the military the authority to protect public and state facilities for two years. Military courts were granted jurisdiction over any alleged crimes occurring on public land, including electric towers and stations, gas pipelines, roads, bridges, and other undefined public facilities.
A few weeks later, then Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered prosecutors to review applicable case files that fall under the new law and refer them to military courts. Any disputes or crimes, no matter how trivial, would be resolved by military judges unfettered by basic due process rights afforded in civilian courts. Hence it comes as no surprise that in the two years since Law 136 was passed, over 7,000 civilians have been tried by the military, of which 3,000 were tried in the first five months. Many of the defendants are accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood or took part in university student protests.
The most recent expansion of military jurisdiction came in June 2016, when President Sisi granted the military the authority to police public lands up to 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the nation’s public roads and highways. Purportedly aimed at preventing attacks on state-owned land, the presidential decree authorized military courts to prosecute violators. Not to be outdone by a hawkish executive, in August 2016 the new parliament approved extending Law 136 of 2014 for an additional five years until 2021.
— Read the full article published on October 12, 2016 on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Sada Journal here.
