The Law of Exchanging the Constitutional between Egypt and the UAE … a question of guarantees and revenge

A few days ago, the Egyptian House of Representatives acknowledged the “Convention on the Transfer of the convicts with negative penalties for freedom” between Egypt and the UAE. The Law of the Vergings of the Constitutional provides for the transfer of those convicted of judicial rulings to their original homeland to spend the sentence period. The sessions of discussing the draft law in the Egyptian Parliament witnessed disputes over the requirement of the prisoner’s approval to exchange and transfer him to his original homeland, which was considered by a number of deputies as a devotion to the law of its content, given that the convict will not agree to spend the punishment in the country where he committed the crime. The Minister of Parliamentary and Legal Affairs, Mahmoud Fawzi, defended during the discussions of this article, saying that the condition of the approval of the convict is internationally recognized in the texts of similar agreements, as it contributes to alleviating the suffering of the prisoner and his family, facilitating his visit and reduces the burden of the state in which the crime took place.

Law of the convicts exchange

According to the discussions in Parliament, the Law of Exchange the convicts aims to create ways to reform and rehabilitate the convict, as this is the primary goal of criminal penalty, as well as that it comes within the framework of legal and judicial cooperation agreements, and in light of respect for human rights and international agreements.

The provisions of the Law of the Guest Exchange, which was approved by the Egyptian Parliament, include 19 articles, divided into four chapters. Chapter One includes the provisions of the transfer of the convicts, while the second chapter specifies the procedures for transferring the convicts. Chapter Three clarifies the powers of the central authority and ways to settle the differences that arise on the application and interpretation of the agreement. As for the fourth chapter, it deals with the duration of the agreement, its validity, and how to amend it and end work with it.

The law was followed by the handing over of Lebanon, the Egyptian poet Abdel Rahman Youssef Al -Qaradawi

According to this article, the request to transfer the prisoner from the state of condemnation, the state of implementation, from the convict, from his legal representative, from his wife, or one of his relatives to the fourth degree. The request to transfer the convict is rejected if the state of conviction in the transfer process is rejected as a prejudice to its sovereignty, security, public system or interests, or if it is acquitted of the innocence of the same actions in the state of implementation, or if the criminal case expires, or the facts of the lawsuit in which he was convicted in the implementation state are denied, according to the text of Article 4 of the agreement.

The approval of the Egyptian Parliament was followed by the law of exchange of the convicts, which raises questions about its repercussions on rights and freedoms, the surrender of Lebanon, the UAE, the Egyptian active and poet Abdel Rahman Youssef Al -Qaradawi, the judicial appendix in Egypt last January.

The Egyptian jurists and the director of the Arab Center for Human Rights Information, Jamal Eid, stressed that this law, and in light of the political and legal conditions in Egypt and the UAE, cannot be related to rights and freedoms, as most of the laws approved by parliaments in this context constitute an attack on the rights of the convicts, and deprive them of the simplest of these rights, as well as any guarantees that enable them to trial. He asked in an interview with “Al -Arabi Al -Jadeed”: “How do we talk about legal guarantees for those convicted within the framework of a law that was approved at a time when any legitimacy is negated by the detention of the poet Al -Qaradawi in Abu Dhabi? Eid added: “In order to be fair, we should not point out that the law was detailed on the case of the poet Abdul Rahman Al -Qaradawi, but we are sure that the UAE’s detention of Al -Qaradawi contributed to accelerating the approval of the law, in light of the official Egyptian desire to receive Al -Qaradawi.”

Regarding the requirement of the law the approval of the convict to transfer it to his country of origin, Eid did not rule out that the matter came to protect some of the convicts in the two countries, especially since dozens of Egyptian businessmen who committed violations in Egypt and came to trial there, they moved to the Emirates with their actions, which explains the reason for the conclusion of the two countries this agreement despite their lack of need to them in light of their close and warm relations, and their indifference to finding a cover Legal for abuses.

For his part, Egyptian activist and human rights activist Haitham Abu Khalil expressed his strong fears of the use of this law as a cover for handing over Al -Qaradawi to Egypt, despite the fact that there are real concerns about his life, which is something that the former Naguib Mikati government in Lebanon struck the wall and surrendered to Emirati influence. According to Abu Khalil, in his interview with “Al -Arabi Al -Jadeed”, what enhances the hypothesis of the law is linked to the case of Al -Qaradawi, which was announced by the journalist loyal to the authority, Ahmed Moussa, that the approval of the law accelerates the attempts to hand over Al -Qaradawi to Egypt.

Dozens of Egyptian businessmen who committed violations in Egypt and brought to trial there, moved to the Emirates with their work

Reducing the burdens or additional risks

On the other hand, the Egyptian MP Dia Dawood preserved the linking of this law to the Egyptian poet Abdel Rahman Al -Qaradawi, pointing out that the laws are issued to serve millions and not to target a specific person, especially as it comes as a continuation of Egypt’s international obligations, and in the context of talking about the importance of international cooperation in the new criminal procedures law. David reminded that “the agreement between Egypt and the Emirates was concluded before the arrest of Al -Qaradawi.”

On the side of the beneficiaries or those affected by the law, Nasr Attia, a resident of one of the Egyptian convicts in the Emirates, in an interview with “Al -Arabi Al -Jadeed”, saw that this law may reduce the burdens on the prisoner and transfer his sentence to his original country, as well as from his family, and organize the visit of the convict and his communication with the lawyers, whether to overturn the ruling or reduce the duration, stressing that thousands of Egyptians have been waiting for this law for years. On the other hand, Wajih Abdel -Khaleq, a relative of one of the Egyptians detained in the Emirates, commented in an interview with “Al -Arabi Al -Jadeed”, that this law will open the door for receiving Egyptian citizens from the Emirates with a specific political position on the current Egyptian authorities, which increases the risks to their lives, especially since the law did not include guarantees that preserve the safety of the convicts or their enjoyment of fair trials.