Life imprisonment, fine of LE 1M for smuggling antiquities

CAIRO – 19 December 2017: Parliament’s Culture and Media Committee approved a bill on Tuesday intensifying the penalty for smuggling antiquities to life imprisonment and a fine up to LE 10 million ($560,100).

The committee’s members, chaired by Osama Hikel, discussed the amendment of Article 41, proposed by the government’s bill regarding the alteration of the antiquities protection law. Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Shahin attended the meeting.

The new Article 41 states, “Everyone who unlawfully smuggles an antiquity outside the Republic or participates in such an act with his knowledge shall be liable to a life imprisonment term and a fine of not less than LE 1,000,000 and not more than LE 10,000,000, and antiquity, devices, equipment, machines and vehicles used in the smuggling operation shall be seized.”

Earlier before the amendments, Article 41 of the new Egyptian antiquities protection law stated that the punishment would be hard prison with a fine of not less than LE 100,000 and not more than LE 1,000,000.