Egypt postpones a criminal-procedure reform that could free long-held detainees

Egypt’s Parliament has postponed the new Criminal Procedures Law from October 2026 to October 2027. The last-minute proposal came from the pro-government Nation’s Future Party and passed shortly before the law was due to take effect.

The formal explanation is administrative. Courts are not ready to operate the digital notification system and remote-proceeding infrastructure required by the statute. That is a genuine implementation problem: procedural rights are not improved if notices fail, records are incomplete or defendants cannot participate meaningfully.

But Mada Masr’s parliamentary and legal sources identify a second consequence. Article 124 would cap pretrial detention at four months for misdemeanours, 12 months for felonies and 18 months for offences carrying life imprisonment or death. Applying those limits could affect hundreds of people held on remand, some of whom protested during a recent court hearing after expecting the new rules to shorten their detention.

The delay therefore preserves the present balance for another year: prosecutors retain broad detention power while defendants wait for a promised ceiling. Lawyer Nasser Amin argues that the pause could permit a serious debate about fair-trial standards; lawyer Ahmed Genady warns that renewed disappointment may intensify desperation and violence inside prisons. A useful postponement would require public milestones for the digital system and a separate remedy for people already held beyond the future limits. Otherwise “readiness” becomes a technically respectable reason to defer liberty.