Military trials are making a comeback in Egypt
A new decree aimed at protecting public land allows civilians to be brought before military courts.
The expression “military trials for civilians” — a controversial topic in the wake of the January 25 Revolution that had nearly disappeared from Egyptian media discourse — is now making a comeback.
On June 8, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a decree commissioning the Egyptian armed forces to be the executive entity responsible for the supervision of state-owned land located within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) on either side of the national network of roads, which includes 21 highways.
Under the presidential decree, aimed at curbing attacks on state-owned land, the armed forces in Egypt are entitled to remove all illegal construction built on state land and bring violators before military courts.
The Egyptian state believes that this decree will enable it to prevent the future emergence of slums on the one hand and establish development projects there on the other.
