A general view taken on January 10, 2016 shows members of Egypt's new parliament meeting during a session in the capital Cairo (AFP)
CAIRO - 11 February 2018: Egypt’s House of Representatives has been drafting a memorandum that shall respond to the European Parliament’s (EP) latest statement requiring the end of the death penalty implementation against terrorists by Egyptian authorities.
The Egyptian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) rejected in a statement the EP’s interference in Egypt’s domestic affairs. “The death penalty is applied in more than one third of the world’s countries,” the statement read.
The statement stressed that Egypt has not signed the international agreement to prevent the death penalty implementation; the United Nations recognizes Egypt’s right to implement this penalty.
Egypt has the right to choose and set its legal and judiciary systems according to the constitution approved in 1923 and in accordance with judiciary independence constitutional articles 94/2014.
Egypt’s official response to EP’s report
“The Parliament will take an official detailed response to the EP’s statement within a few days,” said Tarek Radwan to Egypt Today on Sunday.
Radwan, who chairs the parliament’s FAC, stressed that any foreign intervention into Egypt’s domestic affairs is categorically rejected. “The European Parliament should have issued statements to support Egypt’s anti-terror war. End of the death penalty against terrorists, who have been proved guilty, does not seem a logical move, while several military, security and civilian lives have been taken.”
Tarek Radwan
Egypt rejects foreign interference in domestic affairs
Tarek el-Kholy, the FAC’s secretary, asserted that the EP’s statement demanding Egypt to abolish death penalties against terrorists is an “insistence to interfere into the Egyptian domestic affairs.”
He revealed that three international institutions have continued this interference; U.S. Congress, House of Commons of the United Kingdom and the European Union. “Some members affiliated to those three parties provoked topics related to human rights activities and attempted to draft bill laws against Egypt, but they failed,” Kholy added to Egypt Today.
Kholy manifested that the Egyptian Parliament has sent a report to the UK House of Commons about the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, following the report that the Britons had released over the MB. “The Parliament’s FAC also has successfully dealt with the U.S. Congress’s reports over alleged data about Copts in Egypt.”
Tarek el-Kholy
Regarding the EP’s report related to the death penalty against terrorists, Kholy affirmed that many parliamentarian tours have been made to Europe to tackle this matter.
Kholy stressed that Egypt rejects any foreign attempt to interfere in its domestic affairs, adding, “These Parties do not pay attention to Egypt’s war against terrorism. They neither care about our martyrs nor about the violent and terrorist acts that the Egyptian street has witnessed.”
“Since toppling the MB-affiliated Mohamed Morsi from president post in 2013, Egypt has suffered dozens of terrorist and violent acts conducted by the Muslim Brotherhood group and its associated movements,” Kholy added.
As a concerned committee, FAC is fully aware of the responsibility that it bears to take responsive reactions to similar reports, according to Kholy who also stressed that those international parties are not conspiring against Egypt, but some of their members, in coordination with Qatar and Turkey, have negative stances towards Egypt.
Muslim Brotherhood riots
EP’s report relies on unreliable sources
“The EP’s report’s data mainly counted on suspicious human rights centers’ reports,” revealed member of the Egyptian-EP Friendship Association and FAC’s member Ahmed Ali.
Ali added to Egypt Today on Sunday that a visit to the European Parliament was paid nine months ago; the Egyptian parliamentarians attended a hearing session where they were shocked to listen to untrue data about the detainees in Egyptian prisons and the enforced disappearance phenomenon. The Egyptian security senior officials have affirmed many times that this phenomenon is limited.
“The Egyptian expatriates should play an influential role in responding to similar rumors which only seek to defame the Egyptian state’s reputation,” Ali added.
Chaos
Partisan condemnation of EP’s report
Free Egyptians Party condemned the report released by the European Parliament on Thursday. “The EP looks unaware of Egypt’s judiciary system as the announced death penalties are not the final verdicts and are submitted to many constitutional and legal articles,” said Free Egyptians Party’s Chairman Essam Khalil in a statement on Friday.
Khalil added that the EP does not care about the death penalty as a punishment, but it only becomes interested in this topic when it comes to Egypt. “Can the EP interfere in any European country’s judiciary system?” Khalil wondered.
He called on the European Parliament to show support to the Egyptian people’s battle against terrorism and their right to save the lives of the innocent, adding, “The European Parliament should revise and double-check reports and data that it receives from unbiased organizations on the Egyptian domestic affairs, including the human rights file.”
Free Egyptians Party
EP session addressed Russia, Egypt and Haiti
On Thursday during the EP plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Parliament called for the “immediate release of Oyub Titiev in Russia”, condemned the “death penalty in Egypt” and urged Haitian government to end child slavery.
The EP called for reviewing all pending death sentences and reconsidering the Egyptian criminal codes. It also urged Egypt to “halt all planned executions.”
European Parliament
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