Egypt’s Justice Ministry announced on Wednesday it was suspending an official lawyer from the job and referring his assistant to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for investigation, after a video circulated on social media called on young people to conclude marriage contracts quickly before the enactment of the new law on personal status.
The Justice Ministry’s move came after social media users in Egypt circulated a post by a sheikh urging young people to marry before the law was enacted, “to avoid paying 30,000 Egyptian pounds to the Family Support Fund “, he said.
“the authorized representative”
The ministry said in a statement posted on its Facebook page: “As part of the Ministry of Justice’s follow-up to what was posted on social media on news related to the ministry, it has emerged that there are some publications for a page called ‘the representative legal”, on which a person named Sheikh Yasser Al-Qurashi writes, publications and photos of him documenting marriage contracts, claiming that he is authorized and calling on citizens to get married before the new family law is enacted so that they don’t pay £30,000 into the fund.
And the statement added: “The examination has revealed that he is not working as a legally authorized person, and that he carries out the work of the legal authority on documents relating to the authorized person, Muhammad Muhammad Darwish Mustafa, with the latter’s help from providing him with marriage papers and documents and authorizing him to do so in violation of the list of authorized persons.”
Fake messages
The statement indicated that “an incident memorandum has been issued and referred to the Public Prosecutor to take over the investigation into what he posted on social media of false messages bearing malicious rumours, while the official, Muhammad Muhammad Darwish Mustafa, was suspended from the work and his marriage and divorce books were withdrawn.
The project includes the establishment of an “Egyptian Family Support Fund”, and among its resources will be the shares of those who are about to get married, according to what President Sisi said during the inauguration of a factory last Sunday, but not specified the amount.
