Egyptian Penal Code (Law No. 58 of 1937)

المادة إصدار-1

The Criminal Code in force before the national courts, and the Criminal Code as applied by the different courts, shall be superseded and substituted by the Penal Code attached to the present law.

المادة إصدار-2

The Minister of Justice shall enforce the present law, which shall apply effective the 15th of October 1937.

المادة 1

The provisions of the present law shall apply to any person who commits in the Egyptian country one of the crimes prescribed in it.

المادة 2

The provisions of the present law shall also apply to the persons mentioned here below: First: Any person who commits abroad a deed that renders him/her a doer or accomplice in an offense that lakes place wholly or partially in the Egyptian country. Second: Any person who commits abroad one of the following crimes: A. A felony against the government's security, as prescribed in Part 1 and 2 of Book II of the present law. B. A felony of forgery as prescribed in article 206 of the present law. C. A felony of counterfeit, forgery or falsification of a currency note or coin as prescribed in article 202, or a felony of bringing into or taking out of Egypt that counterfeit, forged or false currency note or coin, circulating it, or possessing it for the purpose of circulating or dealing with it as prescribed in article 203, providing the currency is legally circulated in Egypt.

المادة 3

Any Egyptian committing abroad a deed considered to be a felony or misdemeanor under the present law, shall be liable to punishment by virtue of its provisions if he/she returns to the country and the deed is punishable by virtue of the law of the country where it is committed.

المادة 4

The popular action shall not be brought against the perpetuator of an offense or deed abroad, except by the public prosecution. It shall not be brought against a person who establishes that the foreign courts have acquitted him/her from the charge leveled against him/her, or have passed a final judgement against him/her, and he/she fulfilled his/her penalty.

المادة 5

Crimes shall be punished by virtue of the law in force at the time of its commitment. However, if after committing the deed and before a final judgement is passed in respect thereof, a better law for the defendant is issued, that law shall be the one to be exclusively followed. If, after a final judgement, a law is passed rendering non-punishable the deed for which a judgement is passed against the criminal, the execution of the judgement shall be discontinued and its criminal effects shall be terminated. However, in case the procedures of the public prosecution are taken, or a ruling of condemnation is passed in it, violation of a law forbidding its commitment, within a limited period, the end of this period shall not prevent going ahead with the popular prosecution or implementing the penalties ruled against him/her.

المادة 6

The ruling for the penalties prescribed in the law shall not affect what is necessary for the litigants to rebut and indemnify.

المادة 7

The provisions of the present law shall in no case derogate the personal rights prescribed in the Islamic Sharia.

المادة 8

The provisions of Book l of the present law shall be observed in the crimes, prescribed in the laws and private regulations, unless they comprise a provision contrary thereto. Part 2 Types of Crimes

المادة 9

Crimes are of three kinds: First: Felonies Second: Misdemeanors Third: Violations

المادة 10

Felonies are crimes liable to the following penalties: Capital punishment Permanent hard labor Punishment Temporary hard labor Punishment Imprisonment

المادة 11

Misdemeanours arc crimes liable to the following penalties: Detention Fine the ceiling of which exceeding one hundred Egyptian pounds

المادة 12

Contraventions are crimes penalized with a fine the ceiling of which does not exceeding one hundred Egyptian pounds. Part 3 Penalties Section 1 Original Penalties

المادة 13

Any person whop is sentenced to capital punishment shall be hanged.

المادة 14

The hard labor penalty shall employ the convict in performing the most arduous work determined by the government for his whole life if the penalty is permanent, or for the period be is sentenced to if it is a temporary period. The temporary hard labor penalty period shall not be less than three years and not more than fifteen years except in the special cases prescribed in the law.

المادة 15

Men of more than sixty years of age and women generally, who are sentenced to a hard labor penalty, shall spend their penalty period in one of the general jails.

المادة 16

A penalty of imprisonment shall be to confine the convict in one of the general jails and to employ him/her within or outside the jail in works to be determined by the Government for the period he/she is sentenced to. This period shall not be less than three years or more than fifteen years except in the special cases prescribed in the law.

المادة 17

In felony counts, if the conditions of the crime for which the popular action is brought necessitate the judge's lenity, the penalty may be changed as follows: Capital punishment penalty may be replaced by a life hard labor or temporary hard labor penalty. A permanent hard labor penalty may be replaced by a temporary hard labor penalty or by imprisonment. A temporary hard labor penalty may be replaced by imprisonment or confinement penalty that may not be less than six months. An imprisonment sentence may be replaced by confinement penalty which may not be less than three months.

المادة 18

A penalty of confinement shall be to place the convict in one of the central or general jails for the period he is sentenced to. This period may not be less than 24 hours and not more than three years except in the special cases prescribed in the law. All convict who is sentenced to light confinement for a period not exceeding three months may request to be employed outside the jail instead of executing the confinement penalty, according to the restrictions prescribed in the Felonies Investigation Law, unless the sentence rules that he be deprived of that choice.

المادة 19

The penalty of confinement shall be two kinds: Light Confinement Penal Servitude Convicts who are sentenced to penal servitude shall work inside or outside the jails in works to be determined by the government.

المادة 20

Te judge shall pass a judgement of penal servitude whenever the penalty period sentence is for one year or more, and also in the other cases determined by the law. In all other cases, a light confinement sentence or penal servitude may he ruled.

المادة 21

The period of custodial penalties shall begin from the day the convict is detained according to a ruling mandatory executable, subject to reducing the period by the duration of the preventive detention

المادة 22

A fine penalty shall be to force the convict to pay to the treasury of the government the amount estimated in the court sentence. The fine shall not be less than one hundred pounds nor shall its ceiling in misdemeanors exceed five hundred pounds, without derogation to the limits determined by the law for each crime.

المادة 23

If a person is detained preventively, and is only sentenced to a fine, an amount of five pounds shall be reduced from it, in its execution, for each day of the said detention. If he is sentenced to detention and fine together, and the period he spends in the preventive detention exceeds the sentenced detention period, the said amount shall be reduced from the fine for each day of the said increase in the period of his detention. Section 2 Ancillary Penalties

المادة 24

Ancillary Penalties shall be as follows: First: Depriving from the rights and privileges prescribed in Article 25. Second: Removing from Government positions. Third: Placing the convict under surveillance by police. Fourth: Confiscation.

المادة 25

All felony penalty sentence shall inevitable necessitate depriving the convict from the following rights and privileges: First: Acceptance in any service with the government, whether direct, or in the quality of entrepreneur or concessionaire, whatever the importance of the service. Second: Decoration with a rank or medal. Third: Testifying before the courts for the period of penalty, unless it is for evidentiary fact-finding. Fourth: Managing his works concerning his funds and property, during the period of his arrest. A custodian shall be appointed for this management to be approved by the court. If the ruling does not appoint him, the Civil Court to which belongs his home address, shall appoint him in its consultation chamber, upon the request of the Public Prosecution or an interested person. The court may force the custodian it appoints to submit a guarantee. The custodian to be appointed or approved by the court shall be attached to it in all that is connected with his/her custody. The convict may not dispose of his property except by virtue of a permission from the said Civil court. All obligation he undertakes without observing the foregoing shall be self-abrogated The property of the convict shall be restituted thereto following the lapse of his penalty period or after his release. The custodian shall submit to him an account of his management. Fifth: Remaining, from the day of the final ruling against him, as member of one of the probate councils, the councils of the Directorates, the municipality or local councils, or any general committee. Sixth: His eligibility to be at all a member of one of the bodies indicated in the fifth clause, or an expert or witness in contracts, if a hard labor penalty is ruled finally against him.

المادة 26

Removal from a government position shall be a deprivation from the position itself, and from the salaries prescribed for it. Whether the one against whom a removal sentence is ruled is or is not filling his position at the time the ruling is passed against him/her, he may not be appointed in a government position or receive any salary for a period to be estimated in the judgement. This period may not be more than six years and not less than one year.

المادة 27

All employee who commits a felony of those prescribed in Parts 3, 4, 6, and 16 of Book 2 of this Law, and is treated with lenity by receiving a detention sentence, shall also be sentenced to removal for a period of not less than twice the period of detention ruled against him.

المادة 28

Any person against whom a hard labor or detention sentence is ruled for a felony against the government's security, or a felony of currency counterfeit, theft, or murder in the cases prescribed in clause 2 or article 234 of the present law, or one of the felonies prescribed in articles 356 and 368, shall be placed, following the end of his penalty period, under surveillance by police for a period equal to his penalty period, without such surveillance period exceeding five years. However, the judge may rule that this surveillance period be reduced or wholly eliminated.

المادة 29

Police surveillance shall result in forcing the convict to abide by all the provisions prescribed in the laws governing such surveillance. Violating these laws shall necessitate issuing a ruling against the violator detaining him for a period not exceeding one year.

المادة 30

The judge, if he passes a penalty sentence in a felony or misdemeanor case, may rule that the objects seized as a result of the crime, and the arms and equipment that were used or are likely to be used, be confiscated, without derogation to the rights of a third party of good faith. If the said objects are of those the manufacture, use, possession, sale or offer for sale is considered a crime in itself, a ruling shall necessarily be passed confiscating, them in all cases even if these objects are not a property of the defendant/accused.

المادة 31

With the exception of the foregoing cases, a ruling may be Passed inflicting penalties of removal from the governmental position, police surveillance and confiscation, in the cases prescribed in the law. Section 3 Plurality of Penalties

المادة 32

If the same deed forms multiple crimes, the crime with a stricter penalty and the judgement inflicting that penalty shall alone be considered. If several crimes are committed for the same purpose and are so interconnected that they are indivisible, they shall all be considered one crime and a ruling shall be passed inflicting the penalty that is prescribed for the most serious of these crimes.

المادة 33

Custodial penalties are multifarious, with the exclusion of those excepted by the provisions of Articles 35 and 36.

المادة 34

If the multifarious penalties are diversified, they shall be executed in the following order: First: Hard Labor. Second : Imprisonment. Third: Penal Servitude. Fourth: Light confinement.

المادة 35

The hard labor penalty shall absorb by its period all custodial penalty ruled in connection with a crime committed before the said hard labor ruling was passed.

المادة 36

If a person commits several crimes before a ruling is passed against him for one of these crimes, the temporary hard labor penalty period shall not exceed twenty years, even in case of plurality of penalties. Also, the period of imprisonment, or imprisonment and detention shall not exceed twenty years, while the period of detention alone shall not exceed six years.

المادة 37

Penalties shall always multiply with the fine.

المادة 38

Police surveillance penalties shall multiply. However, their period as a whole shall not exceed five years. Part 4 Complicity of Several Persons in one Crime

المادة 39

The following shall be considered a crime perpetrator: First: A person who commits the crime, alone or in complicity with others. Second: A person who joins in committing the crime, if it consists of several deeds and he premeditatedly does one of the acts forming the crime. However, if certain conditions concerning one of the doers exist to necessitate changing the description of the crime or penalty in relation to him, their effect shall not extend to the other doers. The same shall apply if the description changes in terms of the crime doer's intention or the manner he learns of the crime.

المادة 40

The following shall he considered an accomplice in the crime: First: Any person who instigates to perpetrating, the deed constituting the crime, if that deed takes place on the basis of that instigation. Second: A person who agrees with another on perpetrating the crime and the crime takes place on the basis of such agreement. Third: A person who gives the doer(s) an arm, device, or any other object that has been used in committing the crime while being aware of it, or helps them by any way, in the deeds preparing for, causing or completing its commitment.

المادة 41

A person who participates in committing a crime shall bear its penalty, saving that which is legally excepted by a special provision. However: First: The special conditions of the doer which necessitate changing the description of the crime shall not affect the accomplice if the latter is not aware of such conditions. Second: If the description of the crime changes in view of the doer's intention or the way he learns of it, the accomplice shall receive the penalty he deserves if the doer's intention from the crime or his knowledge of it is same as the accomplice's intention or knowledge of the crime.

المادة 42

If the doer of the crime is not subject to punishment for a cause of permissiveness, the non- existence of the criminal cause, or for other conditions related to him/her, the accomplice shall however receive the penalty as legally prescribed therefor.

المادة 43

A person who joins in committing a crime shall receive its punishment, even if it is not the one he premeditated to commit, once the crime that is actually committed has been a potential result of instigation, agreement, or the assistance taking place.

المادة 44

If the same judgement is passed against several defendants for the same crime, whether they are doers or accomplices, the fines shall be ruled against each of them separately. This is contrary to the relative fines as the defendants shall bear them jointly unless otherwise prescribed in the court ruling.

المادة 44 bis

Whoever hides stolen objects, or objects obtained through a committed felony or misdemeanor, while being aware of it, shall be punished with penal servitude for a period not exceeding two years. If the offender is aware that the objects he hides are obtained from a crime for which a stricter penalty is imposed, he shall be punished with the penalty prescribed for this crime. Part 5 Attempt

المادة 45

Attempt is beginning to carry out a deed with the intent of committing a felony or misdemeanor if the effect of such deed is stalled or failed for reasons beyond the will of the doer. The mere resolution or preparatives to commit shall not be considered an attempted felony or misdemeanor.

المادة 46

An attempted felony shall be liable to the following penalties unless otherwise prescribed by the law: - Permanent hard labor, if capital punishment is the penalty for the felony. - Temporary hard labor, if permanent hard labor is the penalty for the felony. - Temporary hard labor for a period not exceeding half the ceiling, legally prescribed, or imprisonment, if temporary hard labor is the penalty for the felony. - Imprisonment for a period not exceeding half the ceiling legally prescribed, or detention, if the temporary hard labor is the penalty for the felony. - Imprisonment for a period not exceeding half the ceiling legally prescribed, or detention, if imprisonment is the penalty tier the felony.

المادة 47

The felonies whereof the attempt is liable to punishment and also the penalty for that attempt shall be legally defined. Part 6 Criminal Agreements