Egypt punishes land encroachment by prison, and fine up to LE 5M

CAIRO - 31 August 2022: Egypt has paid great attention to agriculture, especially in recent years, setting regulations to protect agricultural areas and remove encroachments on lands. 

 

In this regard, the law imposes deterrent penalties on anyone who encroaches on agricultural lands. 

 

 

 

According to Agricultural law

 

Anyone who violates or attempts to violate the provisions of Article (152) of this law shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of no less than two years and not exceeding five years and a fine of no less than one hundred thousand pounds and not more than five million pounds, and the penalty shall be multiplied per the number of violations.

 

The ruling issued for the penalty shall include the order to remove the causes of the violation at the expense of the violator. In all cases, it is not permissible to order a stay of execution of the penalty of a fine.

 

The Minister of Agriculture, before ruling on the case, may order the cessation of the causes of the violation through the administrative route, at the expense of the violator.

 

The procedures and lawsuits brought by those who resided on agricultural lands in the villages before defining the urban space for them are suspended in violation of the provisions of Article Two of Law No. 3 of 1982 issuing the Urban Planning Law if the buildings are within the urban space of the village.

 

 

 

Article (152) states:

 

It is prohibited to erect any buildings or facilities on agricultural land or to take any measures regarding the division of land to erect buildings on it.

 

It is considered as agricultural land, the arable fallow lands within the agricultural area.

 

 

 

Encroachment removal waves

 

The Egyptian government is firmly acting to remove any encroachments that might harm the interests of citizens, said spokesman for the Irrigation Ministry Mohamed Ghanem Sunday.

Last April, about 55,000 encroachments on some 8 million square meters of land have been removed over the past six months, Ghanem said in statements to Extra News channel.

Big campaigns are being conducted in full cooperation with security and local bodies in all governorates, Ghanem noted.

He made it clear that the Ministry acts to immediately to remove violations once they are detected via satellite or reported.The spokesman warned against encroachments on waterways, stressing that this is very dangerous and could harm thousands of citizens. 

 

On April 8, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi instructed Minister of Justice Omar Marwan to immediately take all necessary legal measures against those who committed larceny to seize state-owned lands.

 

encroachment elimination wave took place on March 6-20 so as squatters were cleared from 1.1 million square meters of state-owned non-agricultural lands, and 4,653 feddans (one feddan equals 4,500 square meters) of agricultural land.  

 

Most of the encroachments were in the form of unlicensed buildings so as 6,511 constructions were demolished from non-agricultural lands, while 732 others were removed from agricultural lands.