The Egyptian government is creating an entire wraparound system to deal with terrorism from the grassroots level, to the courts.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi approved on Sunday a new anti-terrorism law to set up special courts to deal with terror crimes. The law also lists sentences for the various crimes, ranging from a minimum of five years, up to and including the death penalty.
Conviction on charges of forming or leading a “terrorist entity” under the new law will be punishable by life in prison or death. Membership in a “terrorist entity” will carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Being pronounced guilty on charges of financing a “terrorist group” will also be punished with life in prison – a sentence similar to that in the United States, which carries a minimum of 25 years of incarceration.
Incitement to violence – which in Egypt includes “promoting ideas that call for violence” – will be punishable by a penalty of five to seven years in prison. Such incitement can also include creation or use of a website to carry such ideas, according to the new law.
In addition, the legislation provides protection in connection for those “performing their duties” while enforcing the law. Security personnel have been at the forefront of the battle against the terrorist groups attempting to topple el-Sisi’s government in the past two years.
The changes were made against the backdrop of an escalating war on terror that has become increasingly vicious after a car bombing that took the life of the nation’s attorney general and chief public prosecutor in July.
Egyptian security forces have been faced with an ongoing war with terrorist entities operating in the Sinai Peninsula such as the Da’esh (ISIS)-linked Sinai Province organization (formerly Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Hamas terrorists who are also providing support to Sinai Province, and the Iranian sponsored Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah terrorist organizations.