Maat Hold its Fourth Training Course in the Frame Work of its Project (Freedom for All).

20\10\2007.

Maat Center for Juridical and Constitutional Studies held its fourth training course in the frame work of the project (Freedom for All), the course organized in Qena governorate and its activities continued for two days 18& 19 October. The course aimed at training 25 lawyers (man and women) of Elmenia governorate upon "legal procedures concerning defending detainees".

The course opened with the speech of Mr. Ayman Oqeel, administrator of the center, in which he was keen to confirm the crisis caused by the continuing announcement of Martial Law in Egypt for a period exceeds quarter a century, and its bad effect on political, social, and economical life.

He also pointed out to the danger caused by the lately constitutional amendments by its formation which violates what the constitution established of respecting rights and freedoms, especially article N.179 about challenging terrorism.

 He added that by examining the course of these amendments we can say that ending the announcement of Martial Law will not end the emergency case actually, but it will just change its name. This is because the authorities authorized by article N. 179 of overtaking general roles in arresting and frisking, along with article N.6 of the Law of Military Judgments N.25of 1966 which gives the president of the state the right to judge civilians before military courts, affirmed that the state of the Terrorism Law will be a codification of the Martial Law and a step to make it constitutionally accepted, the matter which means more deterioration of the juridical status in Egypt.

Mr. Ayman Oqeel affirmed that the way to get out the terrorism crisis and to discard violence will not be by the security body's adoption of detention policies and security suppression, but it will be through more dedication of values of freedom and social justice. This means that it is necessary to judge those who are responsible of juridical violations and to compensate fully those who are violated.

The course's program included representation of the training papers by an elite of the participants, which subjects were around commenting on Martial Law, the torture crime in the Egyptian legislation and in the international charters, legal procedures regarding detainees' cases, challenging terrorism between the Egyptian legislation and the international charters, executing judgments in the administrative judiciary and the practical training.

The course ended by the participants' unanimous agreement to call upon the president of state, and People's Assembly to immediately end the announcement of the Martial Law in Egypt. They also called upon them to allow men of law and all public forces to participate in preparing and forming the Challenging Terrorism Law, so that it will represent a real guarantee of the accordance of this law with guarantees provided by the Egyptian constitution and the international charters to respect rights and freedoms, this is along with the necessity of issuing a legislation specialized to keep rights and freedoms included a deterring punishments for those who violate it.

The center's administrator asserted the importance of establishing values of social peace, democratic principles, and accepting the other to remove the real gap as a result of the spreading of violence phenomena and the juridical culture decreasing.