El-Sisi approves Criminal Procedures Law with enhanced safeguards, more pretrial detention alternatives

CAIRO – 12 November 2025: President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has approved the issuance of the new Criminal Procedures Law, after the House of Representatives endorsed amendments to the articles that he had previously objected to.

The revised articles, the Presidency stated on Wednesday, address the reasons for those objections and strengthen safeguards for the protection of rights and public freedoms.

They also take into account practical realities, ensures sound legal drafting, enhances legislative clarity, while preventing ambiguities in interpretation or application.

The House of Representatives approved the amendments in a plenary session on 16 October after the law was returned by the president for review.

Among the notable significant newly introduced provisions in the amended law are the following:

Implementation timeline

The new law will take effect at the beginning of the next judicial year, on October 1, 2026, allowing judges, Public Prosecution members, law enforcement officers, and lawyers sufficient time to familiarize themselves with the updated provisions. This also enables courts to establish the telephone notification centers stipulated by the law.

Constitutional protection of homes

The amendments reinforce constitutional protections for private residences and clarify the exceptional circumstances under which entry is permitted, such as distress calls or imminent danger from fire, flooding, or similar emergencies.

Defendant safeguards

The law regulates procedures for the presence of lawyers during the interrogation of defendants whose lives may be at risk. It also boosts safeguards for defendants ordered to be held in correctional and rehabilitation centers or detention facilities pending interrogation in the presence of their lawyers.

Detention regulation

The law restricts detention orders to specific and justified cases for a limited period, subjecting such orders to judicial oversight and granting detained defendants the right to appeal the judicial order of detention or its extension, unlike the previous provision, which set no time limit for detention.

Pretrial detention alternatives

Expanded alternatives to pretrial detention: The law increases the available alternatives to pretrial detention from three to seven, granting investigative authorities greater flexibility to select the most appropriate option and limit the use of detention to a last resort.

The newly introduced alternatives include:

– Requiring the defendant not to leave a designated geographic area without prior authorization from the Public Prosecution;

– Prohibiting the defendant from meeting, contacting, or receiving certain persons;

– Temporarily banning the defendant from possessing or carrying firearms and ammunition, with an obligation to hand them over to the local police station; and

– Using electronic monitoring tools to track defendants where operationally feasible, pursuant to a decision issued by the minister of justice in coordination with the ministers of interior and communications.

Human rights oversight

Acting on a recommendation by the Supreme Standing Committee for Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the law now requires submission of the case files of defendants held in pretrial detention to the attorney general every three months from the start of detention or the last review. This provision aims to ensure that the attorney general can take the necessary measures to conclude the investigation, replacing the previous provision in the draft law, which required the review only once.

Procedural notifications

The law maintains use of traditional procedures for notifying defendants alongside the new digital notification methods introduced by the law, ensuring that, if digital notifications cannot be delivered for any reason, proceedings proceed without delay and legal deadlines are upheld.

Additional guarantees in felony cases

In cases of in-absentia appeals, if the defendant in a felony case or their legal representative cannot attend a scheduled hearing, the court must postpone the session once to allow attendance, thereby safeguarding the right to defense amid the seriousness of felony cases.

These legislative amendments represent an important step forward in enhancing human rights protections, both for individuals and their homes, the Presidency emphasized.

They reduce reliance on pretrial detention, expedite the investigations of the Public Prosecution and court proceedings, and, at the same time, ensure guarantees for a fair trial, the Presidency added.