MB: Government is Not Serious in the Trial of Ministers

Dr. Ahmad Abu Baraka (Member of MB Parliamentary Bloc – Member of the Legislative Committee in the Parliament) in a press release, has reduced from the importance of the consent of the Legislative Committee in the Shura Council on the law of trying ministers.

Abu Baraka stated that this approval comes in a series of the NDP ruling party, pointinng out that this bill of trying ministers had been submitted by more than one MP over the past six years and had been approved by the committees and it keeps on delaying its presentation to be approved in the General Assembly until the end of the session, and the bill gets submitted before committees and same thing happens over and over.

Abu Baraka wondered about the seriousness of the Egyptian government in trying its corrupted ministers, and he added “if the government is serious why doesn’t it submit represent the bill before the parliament then submits it in the General Assembly? is this step difficult to take? didn’t the government pass, in a day or two, more sensitive and complicated laws than this one before?”

The legislative Committee in the Shura Council has approved issuing the Act of the trial of ministers on Saturday 14.02.2009.

Consultant Ragaa Alarabi (Head of the Shura Council’s Legislative Committee) has pointed out during a meeting –which included the presence of the MPs and legal and judicial  singularities- to the need to pass a law on the tiral of Ministers, stateing that it is one of the complementary laws to the Constitution.

“It is the right of members of the Legislative Committee in the Council to make new proposals to the MPs proposals for the committee to provide an integrated project before the Council to approve it  within the Constitution.

The Chairman of the Legislative Committee has invited the MPs to submit their proposals in wrtiting” said Alarabi.

The Consultant has affirmed the approval of the Committee on the necessity to pass a law on the trial of Ministers after the expiry of the old law passed on 1985 during the days of the unity with Syria.

He pointed out that he has requested from the Minister of Justice to provide the Commission with the similar laws in Arab and foreign countires to be taken as an example while drafting the egyptian law, pointing out that the non-application of the current law of the trial of Ministers does not mean that there is a legislative gap and he explained the possibility of trying the Ministers according to the law.

Consultanat Ragaa Alarabi has relied on the sentences of the Court of Cassation which was issued during the trial of the two former Ministers Ahmad Sultan and Ahmad Noah, since the case was juged according to the natural law.

The new bill included the right of the President of the Republic and the Parliament in transfering the Minister to the trial on crimes committed during his performance of his work. The parliament may accuse him, with the signatures of a certain number of MPs. Neither suspension nor detention  does not stop or prevent his trial and the trial of Ministers, its guranatees and sentences must be explicit in law.

The meeting included extensive discussions which was agreed on by all to the need to pass a law on the trial of Ministers under the Constitution, since the current committees and trials are inappropriate.

Consultant Fathy Ragab has stressed on the importance of forming a court specialized with trying the Ministers legally. He also said that the political responsibility, which the President and the Parliament have in addition to the general rules, does not require passing a new law for the trial of the Ministers.