Egypt court rejects islands transfer to Saudi Arabia

The High Administrative Court said it was its 'unanimous' decision that the two islands — Tiran and Sanafir — were sovereign Egyptian territories.

The islands of Tiran, foreground, and Sanafir, background, between Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia. AFP / Photo

CAIRO // Egypt’s top administrative court upheld a ruling on Monday voiding a government agreement to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

The government of president Abdel Fattah El Sisi had appealed against a lower-court ruling in June that found the controversial agreement was illegal.

In its ruling on Monday, the high administrative court said the government had failed to provide evidence that the islands of Tiran and Sanafir belonged to Saudi Arabia. It was the court’s “unanimous” decision, it said, that the two islands were sovereign Egyptian territories.

The courtroom erupted in cheers as the judge delivered the verdict, with lawyers and activists chanting: “These islands are Egyptian.”

There was no immediate response from the government.

The administrative court’s decision came after the government referred the agreement to parliament for a vote.

Lawyers present in court said the ruling was final, but a former senior judge said the government could still find a way to appeal it.

Mohamed Hamed Al Gamal, the former head of the administrative court, said the decision was final according to the administrative court’s procedure, but that it could be unconstitutional.

“The law and the constitution affirm the absence of administrative court jurisdiction in sovereign matters such as international treaties,” Mr Al Gamal said.

The government may challenge the ruling before the constitutional court, he added.

The deal to hand over the islands, which was signed during a visit to Egypt by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in April last year, provoked accusations that Cairo had “sold” the strategic islands. During the visit the kingdom pledged billions of dollars to Egypt in investment and aid.

Saudi and Egyptian officials had argued that the islands belonged to Saudi Arabia and were only under Egyptian control because Riyadh asked Cairo to protect them in 1950.

Khaled Ali and Malek Adly, the two human rights lawyers who led the legal challenge to the government’s plan said Egypt’s sovereignty over the islands dated back to a treaty in 1906, before Saudi Arabia was founded.

The two men were carried out of the courtroom by jubilant supporters. “This verdict is a victory for Egypt,” Mr Adly said.

Even the many Egyptians who agreed with the government objected to the way the deal was announced — buried in a cabinet statement a day after it was signed.

Two rare protests were held in downtown Cairo in April last year against the deal, leading to clashes with police and arrests of activists.

More than 100 people were jailed for up to five years for taking part in demonstrations that police quickly dispersed, but they were later freed on appeal.

Police also made scores of arrests in the lead-up to the protests to discourage a repeat of a large rally on April 15 at which demonstrators chanted for the “fall of the regime”.

Mr El Sisi defended the deal, and said in a televised meeting with politicians that his mother had taught him “not to take other people’s belongings”.

He further requested that the matter not be brought up again.

* Agence France-Presse, Reuters