Africa

Africa

Revolution Protection Prosecution May Appear in Egypt

23 November 2012 03:52 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A presidential decree to create the Revolution Protection Prosecution in Egypt was made public by Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Yasser Ali early on Friday, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

In a live broadcast by Egyptian TV channels, Ali read out the Revolution Protection Law, according to which special prosecution departments will be set up across the country to investigate and retry those implicated in crimes against participants of the February 2011 popular uprising in which then president Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

Under the decree, all those suspected of “revolution crimes”, such as attacking or killing protestors, will be retried even if they were previously acquitted by court. It also enables the country’s attorney general to order a detention of any suspect in such crimes for a period of up to six months.

The new legislation is yet to be approved by the country’s parliament.

The decree was in line with the country’s new constitutional declaration, made public several hours earlier. The document ordered “to re-conduct the investigations and retry those implicated in committing crimes against the revolution.”

The declaration, which will be the country’s fundamental law until a new constitution is adopted, vests President Mohamed Morsi with exclusive power that cannot be challenged by any authority in order to “protect the revolution.”

It prompted leading opposition figure, former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to accuse Morsi of usurping authority and becoming a "new pharaoh," Al-Jazeera reported.

Morsi also sacked the man who came to be identified with the failure to secure guilty verdicts, Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud and appointed Talaat Ibrahim Abdullah to the post.

Morsi had tried to sack Mahmoud immediately after the trial verdict was announced, but Mahmoud, a Mubarak appointee, defied the order.

The newly appointed attorney general was barred by security guards from entering his office early on Friday.