Standards for violating human rights

Egypt's Constitutional Court has articulated standards for when civilians may be tried by military courts, according to this article in AhramOnline. Excerpt:

Article 204 of Egypt's 2014 constitution stipulates that "Civilians cannot stand trial before military courts except for crimes that represent a direct assault against military facilities, military barracks, or whatever falls under their authority; stipulated military or border zones; its equipment, vehicles, weapons, ammunition, documents, military secrets, public funds or military factories."

Law 136/2014, which was amended in 2016, stipulates that crimes committed against public facilities such as power plants, electricity towers, gas lines, railways, roads and bridges or any other public property fall under the jurisdiction of the military court system until 2021.

The court today set three main conditions for civilians to be referred to military courts according to the Law 136/2014.

First, the crime must be directly committed on a facility secured by the armed forces.

Second, the facility in question must be under the actual and direct protection of the armed forces at the time of the crime.

Third, the violation must come under crimes punishable by the penal code and Law.

Human rights jurisprudence strongly disfavors the use of military courts to try civilians.