Court defers action; rules against military

The Cairo Administrative Court today ruled to defer to 1 September action on the 22 appeals presented to it by lawyers and rights centres demanding the suspension of the

The Cairo Administrative Court today ruled to defer to 1 September action on the 22 appeals presented to it by lawyers and rights centres demanding the suspension of the Constituent Assembly tasked with writing Egypt##s new constitution. The court said it was waiting for to be handed all the documents relevant to the case.

For its part, the Constituent Assembly today convened at the Shura (Consultative) Council, to carry on with proceed with work as usual, until a ruling is out.

This is the second constituent assembly to draft a new constitution for Egypt. The first, in which Islamists held a majority, was suspended by the Cairo Administrative Court on 10 April amid a boycott by liberals, secularists, women, young people and minorities who were under-represented. The ruling was based on the fact that the assembly included among its members a disproportionate number of MPs and a sweeping Islamist majority.

The recent case before the Cairo Administrative Court builds on the fact that the second assembly was formed in the same manner as the first, suspended assembly; thus defying and circumventing the first court ruling, and constituting a serious violation to its legal content.

The Administrative Court also deferred action on three cases demanding the dissolution of the Shura Council, the Upper House of Egypt##s Parliament, till 10 July.

The plaintiffs demanded that last month##s Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) ruling that the elections which brought in the People’s Assembly (PA), the lower house of Egypt’s Parliament, were unconstitutional—meaning the assembly in its entirety should be dissolved—should apply to the upper house elections as well.

The law was found unconstitutional because it gave the right to parties to run for the independents’ parliamentary seats as well as for the seats assigned to parties.

According to Mohamed al-Fashni, of the Qena Faculty of Law, the Shura Council proceeds with its agenda and sessions as usual, and is not affected by the dissolution of the PA, since the SCC ruling concerned the PA alone. But Fashni, together with many law experts, expect the Shura Council to meet the same fate, since the elections of both houses were based on the same law.

The administrative court today suspended a Justice Ministry decision passed on 13 June to allow the ruling military powers to arrest civilians under specific charges. The court took the decision after reviewing an appeal filed by 17 rights groups against the controversial decree. “The decision creates extraordinary powers that have no basis in law,” the groups had said in a statement.