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Appeal of Judgments issued in Criminal Cases Legal Seminar at Beirut Arab University

11 March 2024

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The Faculty of Law and Political Science at Beirut Arab University held a seminar entitled "Appeal of Judgments Issued in Criminal Cases - The Egyptian Experience." The seminar was moderated by the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science, Professor Mohammad Kassem. Speakers included the Head of the Criminal Law Department at the Faculty, Professor Fawzi Adham, and the Attorney General at the Appeals Public Prosecution in Beirut, Judge Yehya Ghaboura. The event was attended by the Secretary-General of Beirut Arab University, Dr. Omar Houri, and the member of the Supreme Judicial Council in Lebanon and the President of the Court of Appeals in Beirut, Judge Habib Mezher, in addition to a crowd of lawyers and students.
 
The seminar started by the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science, Professor Mohammad Kassem, who praised the importance of Law No. 1/2024 approved by the Egyptian Parliament. This law allows the appeal of judgments issued in criminal cases (civil cases), emphasizing its role in strengthening the human rights strategy and ensuring one of the guarantees for fair trial. He added that amending the Law of Judicial Procedures fulfilled the dream of senior jurists in Egypt and was achieved in 2024.
 
Professor Fawzi Adham, the Head of the Criminal Law Department at the Faculty, described the enactment of the law as an Egyptian top achievement in law, justice, and human rights, considering these amendments as a "legislative surprise." He emphasized that achieving them would constitute a qualitative leap in the framework of ensuring human rights guarantees, without undermining the principles of fair trial and the right to defense.
 
Professor Adham then explained some of the outcomes of the law, stating that it involves amending some provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law, thereby making litigation before the criminal courts in Egypt two-tiered. This grants litigants the right to appeal judgments issued by criminal courts, making the criminal judiciary in Egypt a secondary appellate level in addition to the primary level.
 
As for the speech of Judge Yehya Ghaboura, the Attorney General at the Appeals Public Prosecution in Beirut, it focused on how Lebanon can benefit from the Egyptian experience in the law of appealing judgments in criminal cases. Ghaboura explained that it is necessary to avoid some of the mistakes and complexities that the new amendment entails, such as the lack of unification of the criminal courts after the law's enactment. He recommended the need to clearly distribute the workload among the courts and to establish a general assembly for the Court of Appeals to distribute the work consistently among judges, motivate them, and make them feel empowered and independent.