Egypt passes law shielding senior military officers from prosecution

  • The law could make senior military officers immune from future prosecution
  • It offers special treatment to high-ranking army officers

CAIRO: Egypt’s parliament on Monday passed a law that could make senior military officers immune from future prosecution tied to violence which followed the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.
The law grants President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi the right to name officers who are eligible for rewards that include ministerial benefits and immunity from investigation for any offenses committed from July 3, 2013 until June 8, 2014, the period from Mursi’s overthrow to El-Sisi’s first day as president.
Hundreds were killed when security forces broke up a sit-in at Cairo’s Rabaa Square in support of Mursi in August 2013, in one of the bloodiest events in Egypt’s recent history.