Update: Military trials approved for civilians

The committee of 50, responsible for amending the constitution, agreed Wednesday evening on the controversial article of referring civilians to military courts, approving it in certain cases. The text of the article includes reference to direct attacks on Armed Forces premises, its camps, properties and factories, attacks on military zones and border areas, any attack on military vehicles or personnel while they are performing their duties. Other cases that would be referred to military trial listed in the article include crimes related to military documents, secrets or funds.

The president will have the right to appoint the defense minister, but this will come into effect after two presidential terms have elapsed, Al-Sayed al-Badawi, head of the Wafd Party and member of the committee of 50 responsible for drafting the constitution, confirmed to local news outlets on Wednesday evening.

The appointment of the minster of defense used to fall within the president’s remit — who before the revolution were all military men — but the military has been pushing to “immunize” the position such that any appointment or sacking must have the approval of the military council. Commentators say that the military fears that any incoming president may seek to destabilize the military’s stance and structure and this is why they are pushing for immunization. These concerns increased, observers say, under the presidency of Mohamed Morsi as the Muslim Brotherhood has a tense relationship with the state apparatus.

A few days before the final voting on the draft constitution, which is set to begin on Saturday, Mohamed Salmawy, the spokesperson of the committee of 50 announced that the number of articles in the new constitution will reach 241.

Salmawy’s announcement contradicts the expectations of several commentators who predicted that the new draft would be much shorter than its predecessor, drafted by an Islamist-dominated constituent assembly in late 2012. These predictions came in light of the fact that the committee of 10, made up of legal experts, have already removed 33 articles from the suspended constitution.

In Wednesday’s daily press conference of the committee of 50, Salmawy revealed that the articles will be distributed as follows: 51 on the fundamental pillars of the state, 58 related to rights and freedoms, 132 on the ruling system, in addition to 39 newly-written articles.

This week, the committee announced its decision to cancel the 50 percent quota for labor and farmers in parliament. It is a significant decision which has sparked concern from some quarters.

However, Salmawy tried to elaborate the decision, explaining that, “The majority of the committee agreed that we should cancel this quota, but at the same time it will not be applied immediately after the constitution is agreed upon by the public. There will be a transitional article that will stipulate when the decision will be applied.”

Both Mamdouh Hamada, the representative of farmers and Ahmed Khairy, the representative of labor, said at the press conference that they respect the decision as long as there will be no quotas for other factions.

Many political observers criticized the quota, stipulated in both the 1971 and 2012 constitutions, as those who ran on this ticket in parliamentary elections were in fact most often businessmen and landowners.

On the other hand, Al-Badry Farghaly, a former parliamentarian and leading labor activist, rejected the decision. In an interview with the privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm, Farghaly said that the committee is playing with fire.

“This decision massively excludes us," he said, "especially given that the political parties’ law does not allow the establishment of a party of either workers or farmers, and if things go this way…capitalism will take over in the next parliament.”