General defends legalizing military trials for civilians

The military judicial authority is an independent entity that does not fall under the mandate of the Ministry of Defense, authority head General Medha Redwan asserted on Monday.

The MoD only supervises the authority at the administrative level, he told the privately owned daily, Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY).

In the interview, Redwan also said that the military judiciary was involved in the trials of individuals accused of committing terrorist acts in the 1990s.

Redwan is a member of the constitutional committee that just finished the final draft of the new constitution, which includes a controversial article allowing the military trial of civilians under certain circumstances.

According to media reports, only six committee members voted against allowing military trials for civilians.

"If there is an attack on a gas station owned by the military, such an attack is not like attacks on other buildings. There are soldiers who are on duty in these stations. Hence, attacking those soldiers or that station is an attack against the Armed Forces," Redwan claimed in defense of the article.

Rights groups have harshly condemned legalizing military trials for civilians. They say at least 12,000 civilians have been tried in military courts since former President Hosni Mubarak fell from power in February 2011.

Redwan added that "if a normal scuffle broke out between a civilian and an army officer, the civilian will definitely be referred to his normal civilian judge, not a military one."

But members of the No to Military Trials campaign assert that many civilians wound up in military courts precisely because of such “scuffles.”

A high-profile case in point was that of Zamalek soccer player Mahmoud Abdel Razik, known as Shikabala, who was referred to military prosecution after he fought in the Hurghada Airport with a person who was later discovered to be an Air Forces pilot.

He was later released following reconciliation efforts with the pilot.

Shikabala’s case has been used as an example of how widespread military trials have become.

But Radwan insisted that the military judiciary does not resort to exceptional measures.

"The military judiciary implements the normal Penal Code. Civilians have the right to appoint civilian lawyers to defend them, and civilians who are tried in military trials are always detained in civilian detention units,” he said.