Cabinet to issue new anti-terrorism resolutions

The Cabinet plans to issue a pact outlining resolutions against terrorism, the government announced after a Thursday meeting.

The pact is an answer to what the Cabinet called the Egyptian people’s demands to swiftly end the war on terror.

These resolutions would include reviewing the cases of prisoners granted amnesty by former President Mohamed Morsi — particularly cases of pardoned Islamist political prisoners — as well as reviewing his decisions to grant Egyptian citizenship to certain non-nationals.

The Cabinet has also decided to allow police forces to enter university campuses without permission from the prosecution in the case of real security threats. This decision comes in the aftermath of weeks of bloody clashes between security forces and Muslim Brotherhood students at Al-Azhar University, which left one student dead early Thursday morning.

The resolution contradicts a 2010 court ruling banning the presence of security forces on university campuses. The Ministry of Interior had immediately appealed the court’s decision, but the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the ruling.

The ruling was only executed following January 2011 revolution, and was considered a victory for student freedoms.

Police presence at Al-Azhar University campus on Thursday was the second incident of breaching that court ruling. The first came when university head Osama al-Abd requested security forces to intervene when Brotherhood students allegedly stormed the university’s administrative building.

Twelve Brotherhood-affiliated students were arrested during the clashes, and were then sentenced to 17 years in prison by a criminal court.

In addition, the Cabinet also recommended renewing the process of drafting a bill on the right of protest. A previous draft law presented by the government was met with an overwhelming wave of criticism, which forced the Cabinet to temporarily withdraw the bill for further discussion.

The Cabinet also discussed the possibility of allocating special court constituencies that would be dedicated to investigating terrorism cases for a "swift implementation of justice.”

The Cabinet resolutions come in line with efforts of the 50-member constitutional committee, which recently decided to stipulate a new "anti-terrorism article" in the draft constitution, according to the privately run daily newspaper, Al-Watan.

The article stipulates that "the state is obliged to face terrorism in accordance with the United Nations definitions [of terrorism], with all its shapes and forms, by drying out its intellectual roots as a threat to the country, and without violating civil rights and freedoms.”