Amid reports on the possibility of the release of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, currently serving a life sentence, on grounds of his old age, a prominent lawyer denied the presence of any such license in Egyptian law.
There is no law or article in Egyptian prison regulations that allow the release of prisoners over 85 in age, said Mohamed Zarea, lawyer and head of the Arab Penal Reform Organization.
“There is, however, release for medical reasons and this does not mean the acquittal of the detainee. It only means that instead of jail, the prisoner is detained in a hospital,” he told Al Arabiya.
The medical release law, Zarea explained, is only applicable to Mubarak if his lawyer submits an official request to the prosecutor general.
“The prosecutor general will then form a committee of three doctors who will decide.”
Zarea noted that if the committee finds out that the prisoner is in critical condition and is expected to die within six months, the prosecutor general can order his transfer to a hospital.
“The same applies if the committee writes in its report that prison conditions will lead to the deterioration of the detainee’s health.”
Cases of medical release in Egypt, Zarea added, were very few, the most notable of which was opposition figure and candidate of the 2005 presidential elections Ayman Nour and Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Supreme Leader and former 2012 presidential candidate Khairat al-Shater.
Gamal Eid, lawyer and head of the Arab Networks for Human Rights Information, agreed with Zarea.
“There is no such law about the release of prisoners after they reach a certain age,” he told Al Arabiya.
There is nothing, he added, in the Prison’s Authority regulations that sanction anything of that sort.
“Prisons are only places of detention for people who received sentences and it is not up to their administrations to decide who to release.”
Reports on the deterioration of Mubarak’s health following the verdict against him issued on Saturday, triggered speculations that he may be released on compassionate grounds. Rumor had it that the Prisons Authority has the right to set Mubarak free when he turns 85.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)