Cairo –

Several reactions and questions were raised by the Egyptian Parliament’s rejection a few days ago of a request by the Attorney General to lift the immunity of Parliamentarian Sahar Al-Qadi, following a lawsuit filed against her accusing her of writing a check without balance amounting to 5 million pounds (about 270 thousand dollars).

The suspicion of maliciousness and the failure to meet the conditions of the internal regulations are the two excuses announced by the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives for not accepting the lifting of the immunity of the parliamentarian affiliated with the Wafd Party.

Refusal to lift the immunity of a female MP is not a new position by Parliament in its two chambers (the House of Representatives and the Senate), as it was previously repeated with 13 MPs in less than a year and a half, which is the age of the current parliament, which held its first session in January 2021.

It is noteworthy that the majority of the deputies who are under suspicion - and then were asked to lift their immunity - are accused in cases related to their financial receivables and issuing bad checks.

According to what was reported by local media at the time, the parliamentary elections - which were held in late 2020 - were subject to many media and human rights accusations regarding the increasing phenomenon of electoral bribery and the payment of millions of pounds by candidates to the parties to secure seats on their lists.

Several cases

It is interesting to note that in some cases, the House of Representatives refused to simply disclose the name of the representative whose immunity is to be lifted if the Parliament’s bureau found that the request to lift the immunity did not meet the requirements of the internal regulations, and it is presented to the plenary session directly without the representative whose immunity is requested to be lifted.

If he fulfills the conditions, the request is referred to the Legislative and Constitutional Committee to prepare a report on it to be presented to the plenary session for voting, with the name of the deputy and the reason for requesting the lifting of immunity announced.

The cases of a request to lift immunity rejected by the current parliament are:

  • April 2022: The House of Representatives rejected the request submitted by the Public Prosecutor to lift the immunity of Representative, Roqaya Abdel Aziz, for not paying a sum of money she had borrowed from a female citizen and issued a check for its value without balance.

The Senate did not accept the lifting of immunity from MP Magdi El-Din Haseeb Abu Al-Hassan, after he issued 14 non-withdrawable checks with a value of approximately EGP 3 million, according to a letter from the Parliament’s Attorney General.

The Senate rejected the attorney general’s request to authorize the lifting of immunity from a member to take legal measures against him in one of the cases, and the name of the deputy or the reason behind the request to lift his immunity was not revealed.

  • January 2022: The House of Representatives rejected the Attorney General's request to lift the immunity of Representative Ahmed Zuhair Abdel Ghani.

The House of Representatives did not accept a request to lift the immunity of one of its members, without naming him.

  • December 2021: The House of Representatives announced approval of the parliament’s office’s decision to reject a request by the Attorney General to lift the immunity of a member of parliament, whose name was not mentioned.

  • November 2021: The House of Representatives rejected the Attorney General's request to lift the immunity of one of the female MPs, without revealing her name.

  • October 2021: The House of Representatives did not agree to lift the immunity of Representative Tamer Abdel Qader at the request of the Public Prosecutor to take legal measures, accusing him of obtaining a bribe to facilitate illegal matters. its members, without naming them or the reason for requesting the waiver of immunity.

  • July 2021: The Senate rejected the request to lift the immunity submitted against MP Abdel Moneim Saeed, after he was accused of assaulting public funds while he was chairman of the Al-Ahram Foundation Board of Directors.

  • April 2021: The House of Representatives did not accept the application submitted by the Attorney General regarding permission to take criminal proceedings against the Chairman of the African Affairs Committee in Parliament, Sherif El-Gabali, after writing a bad check.

Imagine, believer, that the People’s Deputy General (we suppose) accuses a deputy in the People’s Assembly, and he asks the Parliament on behalf of the people to lift the immunity of the accused.

— magdi fattah (@magdifattah) April 18, 2022

procedural immunity

There are controls and procedures for lifting the immunity of members of Parliament that are specified in detail by the bylaws of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Article 356 of the internal regulations stipulates that no criminal measures may be taken - whether at the stage of investigation or referral to trial - without prior permission from Parliament, with the exception of the case of flagrante delicto.

Article 357 requires that the request for permission to lift custody of the member be submitted by the Attorney General or the Military Prosecutor, with a statement of the incident attributed to the member for which the immunity is sought, and a copy of the case documents in the case in which the attorney is accused should be attached.

If the request to lift the immunity is submitted by someone who wants to file a lawsuit directly against the representative, then the approval of the attorney general is required for the request to lift the immunity. In accordance with the provisions of the bylaws of Parliament.

According to Article 361, Parliament does not consider the availability or unavailability of evidence to convict in the matter of the criminal accusation against the representative or in the direct action from the judicial point of view, and the research is limited to the extent of the maliciousness of the claim, suit or procedure, and to verify whether any of them is intended to prevent the member from performing Parliamentary responsibilities of the Council.

The request to take criminal action against the member must be decided upon within 30 days at most from the date of notifying the council, otherwise the request will be considered accepted.

A member of the People’s Assembly is registered by voice and has evidence of guilt presented against him,


and the Public Prosecutor requests the lifting of immunity from him because the Public Prosecution is investigating him.


Parliament refuses to lift the immunity and considers the matter malicious , and they rejected


the Public Prosecutor’s request.

That's why we knew why some are fighting to reach the parliament seat # Our Honorable Parliament 😏 pic.twitter.com/KxmFVmnupr

— 🇪🇬 Sara Fahmy (@sarafahmmy) October 24, 2021

Parliament 2015

The 2015 parliament - which included a larger number of opposition deputies compared to the current parliament - was more flexible in dealing with the attorney general's requests to lift the immunity of MPs, as there were many cases in which the lifting of immunity was accepted, and even the membership of two MPs was dropped.

The immunity of former MPs, Sahar Al-Hawari, Haitham Al-Hariri, and Khaled Shaaban, has been lifted, and all three of them submitted requests to lift their immunity to appear before the investigation authorities in cases of violence and financial debts.

After her immunity was lifted, the Parliamentary Alexandria Economic Criminal Court convicted Sahar al-Hawary and her two brothers, Hatem and Hazem al-Hawary, to 5 years in prison, for declaring bankruptcy fraudulently in 1998 with a total amount of 238 million pounds to evade paying their debts.

The House of Representatives also approved the Attorney General’s request to lift the immunity of MP Muhammad al-Hanawi, because he was accused of writing a check worth one million and 750 thousand pounds that did not correspond to an existing and withdrawable balance.

MP Salah Issa's immunity was lifted, for accusing him of facilitating the procedures for obtaining licenses for building cemeteries on a plot of land in return for a sum of two million pounds as a bribe.

Parliament also revoked the membership of MP Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, claiming that he "undermined" the House of Representatives in reports he sent to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The House of Representatives agreed to drop the membership of the controversial journalist, Tawfiq Okasha, a member of the House, after his meeting with the Israeli ambassador in Cairo.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives at the time, Ali Abdel Aal, attributed the vote to drop Okasha's membership because he was involved in matters related to Egyptian national security, and not to his meeting with the Israeli ambassador.

Information about the Public Prosecutor Hamada Al-Sawy’s request to lift the immunity of MP Tamer Abdel Qader, a parliamentarian from the New Valley Governorate, due to the presence of records from the Administrative Control of his request for a bribe to facilitate illegal matters


.

Was the refusal justified as malicious suspicions?

- Already Happened (@7adasBelfe3l) October 20, 2021

encouragement to deputies

In this context, a number of social media pioneers denounced Parliament's repeated rejection of requests to lift the immunity of deputies accused in criminal cases, expressing astonishment that these accused represent the country's legislative authority.

In turn, the journalist writer Ahmed Hassan Al-Sharqawi commented on the continued rejection of requests to lift the immunity of members of Parliament, considering it to encourage the rest of the MPs to defy the law.

And about the fact that the House of Representatives refused to lift the immunity of Representative, Ruqayya Abdel Moneim, Al-Sharqawi said through his Facebook account that the deputy is accused of fraud and fraud, and is managing a contracting company that works as a subcontractor in the implementation of projects proposed by the Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces.

Regarding the maliciousness that Parliament invokes to reject requests to lift immunity, Zuhdi al-Shami, deputy head of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, said that the claim that the accusations against the deputy are malicious is an increase in the parliament, which turns itself into an investigation authority instead of the Public Prosecution, which submits a request to lift immunity, accompanied by documents and recordings.

Al-Shami pointed out that the allegation of malicious presence is an insult to all judicial authorities, which cannot have a personal dispute with the accused attorney.

The party leader considered that Parliament's position on requests to lift immunity is expected after its members were chosen with a flawed electoral law and in an authoritarian manner that involved political corruption, as he described it.