NHRC Denounces Decision To Try MB Members In Military Courts

Dr. Ahmed Kamal Abul Magd, the vice-Chairman of Egypt’s National Human Rights Council (NHRC), denounced the government decision to refer civilians to military courts, confirming that these courts don’t have the guarantees of a fair trial.
 
He warned, in the third hearing last Tuesday evening in the Shura Council on the constitutional amendments, against devising an anti-terrorism law which may become a mirror image of the current emergency law in a way that curb public rights and freedoms of citizens .
 
Abul Magd criticized sharply the government due to its insisting on introducing some constitutional texts aiming at excluding the Muslim Brotherhood group from participating in the public life, confirming that the constitution mustn’t be involved in any party or political scheming.
 
Abu Al-Magd, a former minister of information, pointed out that the judicial supervision on the elections yielded good results despite the several cases of election rigging that targeted curbing the sweeping wins of the Muslim Brotherhood; he stressed that the political atmosphere is the key measure of the fairness of elections because the judges were beaten during the last elections, and the judges of any potential election commission may be beaten also despite its independence and immunity.
 
Abul Magd demanded also that the president be given only two terms in office.
 
“Some defended, on groundless bases, defects of Article 76”, said Abu Al-Magd, and adding that the ghost of unconstitutionality will hunt any text that closes the door in front of the independents’ right to run for the elections; this article must be reconsidered.
 
Abul Magd confirmed that the Egyptian people have got out of the dark tunnel and won’t return to it again, demanding the regime to hold political dialogues with all opposition movements instead of using the security, police and crackdowns which distort the image of Egypt.
 
“The current constitutional amendment won’t be last”, said Abul Magd, confirming that although these amendments have several positive points, but they have many negative points which shouldn’t be disregarded, and he added that both who blindly support and blindly reject these amendments are mistaken .
 
For his part, Mr. Ahmed Saif Al-Islam Hamad, the chairman of Hesham Mubarak’s center for human rights, said in a statement to Ikhwanweb that” the statements of Dr. Kamal Abul Magd are right; all Egyptians reject transferring of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders or others to military courts because this is a flagrant violation to human rights and Egyptian law that guarantee people’s right to appear before a normal civilian judge.
Saif Al-Islam Hamad pointed out that the coming constitutional amendments serve only members of the Egyptian regime, seeking, through them, to bolster their dictatorship and authoritarian powers.
 
Hamad added that it is strange and totally rejected that the National Democratic Party devises the constitutional amendments that determine the future of Egypt
 
There should be a serious national dialogue around the constitutional amendments; these dialogues should include all political powers and civil society institutions, he added.



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