The People’s Assembly's Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee on Sunday approved a proposal submitted by a member of the ruling military council that says the military judiciary should be the only authority to decide on whether the cases submitted to it are under its jurisdiction
The proposal, submitted by Major General Mamdouh Shahin, replaced an article that stipulated that only the military judiciary has the authority to decide whether crimes were among its speciality or not.
During an earlier parliamentary session in April, Shahin rejected suggestions to refer cases handled by the military judiciary to civilian courts, describing the demand as an infringement on the military courts’ jurisdiction.
However, a crisis erupted when discussing Article 8, which the committee did not cancel or amend depsite calls to do so. The article grants the military judiciary the right to review crimes of retired armed forces personnel, including illicit gains.
Shahin said the article concerns those who committed crimes while in service, while the crimes in question were discovered after retirement. MP Abul Ezz al-Hariry said administrative and financial crimes should be referred to the civil judiciary, as officers become civilians after retirement.
MP Zyad Elelaimy said the article describes military judges as more fair than their civilian counterparts. He considered this unacceptable.
Elelaimy said he doesn’t see the difference between public and military funds and that people should know who stole their money, and hence civilian judges should review cases of the retired officers.
To end the argument, Mahmoud al-Khodeiry, head of the committee, put the article to a vote. Thirteen out of 23 committee members voted in favor of it.
This article is an edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
