COMPENSATION TO EGYPT UPRISING VICTIMS INCREASED THREEFOLD

Egypt’s new Parliament, in its first legislative act since convening in January, passed a law on Mar 12 increasing by more than threefold the proposed compensation to families of protesters killed in the country’s popular uprising. The new Parliament was elected in the wake of the revolt that overthrew Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, after thirty years of his iron-fist rule. The Muslim Brotherhood, banned during his rule, won more than 43 per cent of seats. The law proposed on Mar 12, which the ruling army council must still approve, would boost compensation to 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($16,600) for each dead family member, from the 30,000 pounds that a government committee proposed last year.

Some 850 protesters were killed in the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak, a government-formed inquiry committee said last year. The former president has been accused of ordering the shooting of protesters and is now on trial. “I announce the conclusive agreement of the Parliament on the proposal of this law,” Speaker Saad Al-Katatni said at the parliamentary session.