Diaa Rashwan call for compensation of terror attack victims

CAIRO - 26 July 2017: Diaa Rashwan, the Head of the State Information Service (SIS), urged Egyptian House of Representatives to activate a constitutional Article that stipulates on legal compensation for victims of terror attacks during a conference Wednesday.

Rashwan, who is also journalist, said this during his opening speech for the Arab-Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) that was arranged to legally support victims of terrorism. The conference was attended by lawyers, members of political parties, professors, human rights activists and members of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR).

Rashwan called for activating the constitutional article into legislations to prosecute individuals and countries supporting terrorism.

In the Egyptian Constitution, Article no 241, stipulates that “in the first legislative term after the enforcement of this Constitution, the House of Representatives shall issue a law on transitional justice that ensures revealing the truth, accountability, proposing frameworks for national reconciliation, and compensating victims, in accordance with international standards.”

Over the past months, the country has witnessed a number of terror attacks that left dozens of victims killed, and their cases are still remain pending in courts and prosecutions, due to the large number of cases pending trials.

Previously, Politicians, lawmakers and experts have called on the state to amend the laws that may precede fast litigation and to swiftly handle terrorism-related cases.

In this regard, the parliament approved amendments to the Criminal Procedure Laws, to procedures of appealing before the Court of Cassation, to legal procedures concerning terrorist entities and terrorism-related crimes, and to Emergency and Anti-Terrorism law.

Also, during the conference NHCR member Hafez Abu Saada said that the conference aims at returning the rights of victims who were killed as a result of operations supported by Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood through its affiliated organizations.

He further said they will discuss forming defense team to defend the victims' families, from Egyptian, Arab and foreign lawyers.

The conference discussed legal methods that can be followed locally and internationally to obtain the rights of martyrs.