Court rejects government appeal against Tiran and Sanafir ruling

An administrative court rejected a government appeal regarding the transfer of the Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The appeal requested that a previous court ruling, which annulled the maritime border deal granting sovereignty of the islands to the Gulf, state be suspended.

Following Tuesday's ruling, the court accepted a counter-request from human rights lawyer Khaled Ali obliging the government to implement the decision invalidating the deal until a final verdict is issued in the case, which is currently being investigated by the Supreme Administrative Court. The same court also obliged the government to pay a LE800 fine.

The case has not yet closed, however, as Tuesday’s ruling only ends one part of the litigation process which was initiated in April immediately following the government’s decision to hand control of the two Red Sea islands over to Saudi Arabia.

On June 21 an administrative court ruled that the border deal over the islands was void, and the Tiran and Sanafir islands would remain under Egyptian sovereignty. However, the Egyptian government filed two appeals against the ruling, one of which requested that the implementation of the June decision be suspended. The other appeal, which was brought before the Supreme Administrative Court, requested that the ruling be canceled altogether. The government filed a third lawsuit on August 15 with the Supreme Constitutional Court, arguing that the administrative judiciary is not entitled to rule on the case of Tiran and Sanafir in the first place.

The next Supreme Administrative Court session reviewing the case is set to take place on December 5. If the court chooses to reject the government’s appeal, the ruling to invalidate the border deal will be considered final. However if the appeal is accepted, it will then be reviewed by the head of the State Council.

Opposition against the border deal has led to the biggest protest movement since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power in June 2014, reaching its peak on April 25 with what have been dubbed “The Land Protests.” A huge number of protesters were arrested and accused of protest-related charges, while many others were accused of spreading false information, by stating that the two islands are Egyptian. A number of rights lawyers and journalists have faced these charges, including lawyer Malek Adly and journalists Amr Badr and Mahmoud al-Sakka.