Cairo – A human rights organization criticized the Egyptian authorities’ decision to start implementing the remote pretrial renewal project, considering that this undermines the rights of detainees, and violates Egyptian law and many international covenants and covenants.
And the Egyptian Ministry of Justice recently announced the completion of the first phase of the remote pretrial renewal project, which it launched on October 18.
For its part, the Committee for Justice considered that the information published about this project indicates that the detainees are deprived of basic principles within the principles of a fair court required by international and humanitarian law; Such as the right of the accused to appear before a natural judge, as well as depriving the accused of communicating with his lawyer and being alone with him, and having his lawyer present to him his defense plan.
In a statement on its website, the executive director of the human rights organization, Ahmed Mufreh, said that this decision violates the principles of a fair trial, which is one of the basic pillars of human rights in the global system, adding that the accused will be subject to the executive authority, which opens the door to being exposed to more violations.
Mufreh considered that the decision will keep the detainees away from the eyes of any judicial oversight, as the judge will only see what the executive authority wants to see through the camera only, adding, “Also, where are the rights of the defense?”
The statement of the organization – based in Geneva – quoted Egyptian lawyers as saying that in addition to his severe flaw in the issue of defense rights, he also faces many challenges related to the infrastructure of Egyptian court institutions, the most important of which is the weakness of the Internet; This often leads to the downfall of the electronic system in the courts, which will lead to a further slowdown in the procedures, according to a lawyer whose name the organization did not mention.
The human rights organization stressed that the authorities in Egypt should not take advantage of the precautionary measures applied to prevent the spread of the Corona pandemic; to storm more of the rights of detainees, in reference to the Egyptian Ministry of Justice’s argument that this system will work not to endanger the lives of detainees, by limiting their mixing with others.
The Egyptian Ministry of Justice had announced that the goal of the project was to enable the judge to initiate the procedures for renewing the detention of the accused, who are being held in pretrial detention, without the need to transfer the accused from their places of detention, justifying this by achieving several goals; The first of these is security, which is to reduce security risks during the transfer of the accused, and an economic goal is to save the expenses of transporting the accused, and a health goal in light of the second wave of the Corona pandemic, by limiting the exposure of detainees in pretrial detention to contact with others.
The ministry indicated that after 4 months of launching the project, it succeeded in linking the New Cairo Court of First Instance, the South Cairo Court of First Instance, the North Cairo Court of First Instance, and the Helwan Court of First Instance, as well as the Heliopolis and Abdeen District Courts, with the Tora General Prison and the Tora Prison. Al-Qanater al-Khayreya Public Prison, Cairo General Prison, and al-Nahda and 15th of May central prisons.
The East and West Alexandria Primary Courts were also linked to the prisons of Burj Al Arab, Gharbaniyat, Al Hadra, Damanhour for women, Damanhour for men, and Karmouz Central Prison.