Egyptian president wants foreign convicts to be sent back

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has issued a decree to send foreign defendants on trial or already convicted to their countries to be tried or to serve their sentence.

The new law stipulates that the general prosecution has to request the transfer of the prisoners and the cabinet has to approve the request, Al Ahram reported.

"This law was issued to uphold the interest of the state and to maintain the international image of Egypt," presidency spokesman Alaa Yousef said Wednesday.

Yousef also said the new law was in line with the adequate legal framework Egypt was establishing, adding that, by serving their sentences in their countries, defendants would find it easier to reintegrate back into society after their release.

The law might be utilised in the case of Al Jazeera journalists as two of the three detained defendants, Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, are foreigners.

It is still unclear whether the new law would apply to detained Egyptians with dual nationalities.

The three journalists were sentenced in June to jail terms ranging from seven to ten years for spreading false news and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood.

Responding to international pressure to release the journalists last month, Sisi said that the best way to deal with violations committed by foreign journalists was deportation from the country.

However, he made it clear that he could not interfere with the judicial process, stressing that the country's judiciary was "completely independent".

Another case where the new verdict can be applied is the case of Egyptian-American Mohamed Soltan, who has been on hunger strike for over 285 days and is being tried in the case known as the "Rabaa control room".

Soltan, 26, along with 50 others, is accused of setting up an operations room during the Brotherhood-led Rabaa Al-Adaweya protest camp in July-August 2013, as part of plans to defy the state and spread chaos, as well as plot attacks on police stations, private property and churches.