Egypt court rules only president can void peace treaty News
Egypt court rules only president can void peace treaty
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[JURIST] A court in Cairo on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit against Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] intended to nullify the 1979 Camp David Peace Accord with Israel. The court, which is charged with solving administrative concerns, determined [Ahram Online report] that the issues were a matter of sovereignty which only the president had the authority to choose to enforce. The lawsuit was brought by Egypt’s Revolutionary Youth Union who believe that the terms of the peace accord are contrary to the interests of Egyptian citizens and that those terms should be amended or discarded in entirety so that new arrangements might be made with Israel. The issue of greatest concern to the Revolutionary Youth is the restriction on troops in the Sinai Peninsula which the group believes is causing an increase in militant groups in the area.

Despite the success of a peaceful presidential election, Egypt has faced continued political turmoil since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak last year. In August a lawyer in Egypt filed an appeal challenging a declaration by Morsi granting himself complete legislative and executive power [JURIST reports]. In July, a few days after he was sworn in, Morsi issued a decree [JURIST reports] calling the dissolved Egyptian parliament back into session, despite a previous ruling by the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court [official website] dissolving it due to its finding that one-third of its members were elected illegally. The court suspended Morsi’s decree two days later, after which Morsi vowed that he would respect the ruling [JURIST reports]. Days before its dissolution, the Egyptian parliament elected a new constitutional council after lawmakers finally reached an agreement [JURIST reports] on the political composition of the council. In April the country’s Administrative Court temporarily suspended [JURIST report] the work of the Egyptian Constituent Assembly after ruling in favor of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the formation of the panel.