Egypt’s House of Representatives approved a draft law on Wednesday to postpone the implementation of the new Criminal Procedure Law by one year, moving the effective start date to October 1, 2027, instead of October 1, 2026.
The final approval was granted during an emergency plenary session chaired by Counselor Hisham Badawy. It followed extensive discussions regarding the reasons for requesting the delay and whether the relevant authorities had completed the necessary preparations to implement Law No. 174 of 2025 on its previously scheduled date.
The draft law aims to grant competent authorities an additional year to complete the organisational, institutional, technical, and human requirements needed for the new legislation. This extension is intended to ensure the readiness of all parties within the criminal justice system before the law is applied nationwide.
Required preparations include completing electronic systems for notifications and remote litigation, finalising databases, and establishing electronic links between various entities. The extended timeframe also covers the completion of procedures to digitise the litigation and criminal procedure systems.
Additionally, the preparations involve training and qualifying the human cadres responsible for applying the new law, alongside coordinating between the various entities involved in criminal proceedings to standardise work mechanisms and prepare for the legislative changes.
The explanatory note to the draft law stated that applying the Criminal Procedure Law represents an integrated system extending across the republic. This necessitates practical testing of the newly introduced systems and procedures, as well as monitoring and addressing any obstacles that may arise during the preparation and trial operation phases prior to actual implementation.
Under the approved draft law, the phrase “the first of October following the date of its publication” in Article 6 of Law No. 174 of 2025—which issued the Criminal Procedure Law—is replaced with the phrase “the first of October 2027”.
Article 2 of the draft law stipulates that it will be published in the Official Gazette and will come into effect on the day following its publication date, with its provisions implemented as state law.
