Egypt's busy military courts

Prof. Sahar Aziz

Texas A&M University School of Law Professor Sahar Aziz has posted this Cairo Review of Global Affairs essay about Egypt's military courts. Excerpt:

Coupled with a series of amendments to the Military Judiciary Law that counted state properties and institutions as military property, the military courts’ jurisdiction has become troublingly vast. Buildings, factories, companies, or roads owned by the government have been transformed into military spaces that strip ordinary courts of jurisdiction. The severe curtailment of due process rights and the military judiciary’s ingrained loyalty to the military means an indictment by a military court is a near guarantee of conviction, especially in contrast to the comparatively more independent civilian courts. Although Article 204 of the 2014 Constitution nominally grants independence to the military judiciary, Article 1 of the Military Judiciary Law grants an administrative entity within the Ministry of Defense the authority to regulate it. Thus, military officers serving as judges are restrained—by institutional structure and culture—from meaningful independence.