In line with the timeframe of the Project on Strengthening the Legal Regime against Terrorism in Egypt, that is funded by the Government of Japan, the UNODC Terrorism Prevention Branch (UNODC/TPB) organized another successful workshop for Egyptian criminal justice officials. The workshop on the investigations, prosecutions and adjudications of terrorism related offences, based on the UNODC/TPB Digest of Terrorism Cases, was held in Cairo from 2 to 4 December 2014.
The Egyptian delegation consisted of 38 criminal justice officials (including 5 women) from various national agencies (i.e. senior judges from the Court of Cassation and the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Justice, prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor General, senior officers from the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defence, and diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
Six international experts from Jordan (senior prosecutor), Iraq (senior judge), Lebanon (senior investigating judge), Spain (intelligence officer), the United States of America (senior prosecutor) and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (pre-trial judge) made presentations to introduce relevant national frameworks, good practices and challenges in investigation, prosecution and adjudication of terrorist cases during the workshop.
The Senior Assistant for International Cooperation Judge Adel Fahmi represented the Egyptian Minister of Justice during the opening and closing ceremonies of the workshop. In the opening ceremony, Judge Fahmi welcomed on behalf of the Minister of Justice all participants and experts, highlighting the importance of the cooperation between Egypt and UNODC/TPB in providing the Egyptian criminal justice officials with good practices in investigating, prosecuting, and adjudicating terrorism related offences. In the closing ceremony Judge Fahmi expressed the highest appreciation for the cooperation with UNODC/TPB, indicating the very high value of the workshops organized by the Branch in Egypt.
The Embassy of Japan in Cairo was represented by Mr. Naohiro Akagi, and UNODC was represented by its Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa Mr. Masood Karimpour.
During the three-day workshop, the participants learned about the national, regional and international approaches to investigating and prosecuting terrorist financing and their main challenges. Very thorough and in-depth discussions took place with respect to all the agenda topics.
Egyptian participants also shared their perspective and experiences regarding the national legal framework and mechanism on the prosecution and investigation of terrorist related cases. Open discussions took place in every session of the workshop on how mechanisms, experiences and practices highlighted by experts can be useful for Egypt. This was also dealt with as an independent topic at the end of the workshop.