Bill toughening punishment against unlicensed weapon traders approved

CAIRO – 12 November 2018: The Parliament approved Saturday, Nov. 10 a bill to toughen the punishment of trading, importing or manufacturing unlicensed white arms, and to prohibit starter pistols and air guns.

Following amendments, the law stipulated that violators will be punished by at least one year in prison, and will be fined not less than LE 10,000 ($557) and not more than LE 50,000 ($2,785)

MP Saeed al-Aboudi also called for punishing those who trade in these weapons under the pretext of repairing them. He proposed that violators should be imprisoned for not less than two months and fined not less than LE 500 ($28) and not more than LE 1,000 ($56)

Over years, bladed weapons and other cold weapons have been widely used in Egypt to commit crimes, as they do not produce sound and could be extremely cheap.

In 2013, a prominent Shia Muslim leader Hassan Shahata and three other Shiites were murdered in Giza’s Abou al-Noumros after several individuals headed to the crime scene carrying Molotov cocktails, sticks and bladed weapons.