The Egyptian House of Representatives approved a draft law submitted by the cabinet to amend Article 80 (A) of the Penal Code in revealing state secrets.
This law will replace the penalty stipulated in the article of the Penal Code with the following text:
“Without prejudice to any severer penalty stipulated in any other law, a penalty of imprisonment for a period of not less than six months and not more than five years and a fine of not less than LE5,000 and not exceeding LE50.000.”
The penalty stipulated is for the following crimes:
- Whoever obtains by any illegal means a secret of the country’s defense affairs without intending to hand it over or disclose it to a foreign country or to one of those working in its interest.
- Whoever discloses, in any way, any of the country’s defense secrets.
- Whoever organizes or uses any means of correspondence intending to obtain, deliver or broadcast a defense secret from the country.
- Anyone who collects questionnaires or statistics or conducts studies for any information or data related to the armed forces, its tasks, or its current or former members because of their job without written permission from the Ministry of Defense.
“If the crime occurred in the time of war, or by using a method of deception, fraud, disguise, or concealment of personality, nationality, profession or capacity, or by any means of information technology, or if the violator was an officer of the armed forces, one of its members, or its civilian employees, the penalty will be imprisonment,” it added.
