PROFILE: Who is the new chairman of the State Council?

CAIRO - 16 September 2019: Counselor Mohamed Mahmoud Farag Hossam al-Din was sworn in on Sept. 16 before President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi as a new chairman of the State Council.

Sisi issued presidential decree No. 464 of 2019 on September 12 to appoint Chancellor Mohamed Mahmoud Farag Hossam al-Din as head of the Council of State, replacing Chancellor Ahmed Abul-Azm whose term of retirement ended on September 14.

Hossam al-Din was born on October 8, 1951 in the village of Ibiana in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate. He is married and he has two children who work outside the judiciary; he received a Bachelor of Law from Alexandria University in 1973, with a very good grade.

He received his Diploma in Public Law and Islamic Law from Ain Shams University in 1976 and 1977, and was appointed atthe State Council on December 31, 1973.

Hossam al-Din was promoted to an advisor in June 1989, an undersecretary of the State Council in 1993,vice-president of the council in June 1995 and worked in all departments of the State Council.

Hossam al-Din was president of the disciplinary court in Alexandria, head of the administrative court of al-Beheira government and a member of the Supreme Administrative Court. Hossam al-Din spent six years on secondment to the Audit Bureau in Saudi Arabia.