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The Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled Law 32 is constitutional..
The SCC decisions are final. There are no appeals against them as it's the highest court in Egypt.
This means that this is the end of Centamin court case which was filed by Alfakhrany. The case and any previous initial rulings get cancelled.
I guess we should expect an announcement or a clarification from Centamin regarding this so that the whole market knows officially about it.
Details about the SCC decision today are in these links:
https://www.shorouknews.com/news/view.aspx?cdate=14012023&id=3a9d162e-d8f2-4943-99ac-b2f3d56be4c9
https://www.vetogate.com/4789302
Sikol
The reasons behind the commissioners recommendation:
The report supported law 32 constitutionality, considering that granting the right to every citizen to challenge state contracts violates the conditions of direct personal interest in litigation, and turns the matter into lawsuits that justice rejects in its latest forms, in addition to the people’s oversight of the government in its management of state affairs is through its deputies (MPs), which is a political oversight, not judicial, and its place is ballot boxes, not court arenas, so that the right to litigation remains a final resort and is linked to the direct personal interest, not by the citizenship.
The report also considered the law compatible with the constitution, which explicitly obligated the state to encourage investment, provide an attractive climate for it, guarantee different types of ownership, and adjust the litigation system in a way that preserves balance and stability in the contractual relationship between the state and investors.
As you know, we are expecting the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) to rule on Saturday on law 32.
Normally, the SCC refers cases to the SCC commissioners to discuss the case, listen to both sides and write a report with their recommendation.
The SCC does not have to agree with their recommendation, but it would look bad to rule against their recommendation, and normally they agree with it.
Last time, the commissioners recommended that law 32 was unconstitutional and recommended to cancel it. The SCC did not like their report/recommendation, returned the report to the commissioners and advised them to re-write it after further considerations.
Now the new report has been published, and the commissioners have found law 32 constitutional and recommended to cancel the case challenging its constitutionality.
If the SCC agrees with them, which is the most likely outcome now, that means law 32 is constitutional, which means the end of Centamin case because the law applies to all the cases which did not have a final ruling, and if you remember, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) has suspended Centamin case during the appeal stage pending the decision of the SCC on law 32, and the ruling from the first Administrative Court in Centamin case was an initial ruling, not a final one.
We will find out for definite on Saturday..
I will let you know as soon as I know..
(I will write the reasons for the commissioners recommendation in a separate post)
Hi all,
This is the site for the SCC which will rule on law 32..
https://www.sccourt.gov.eg/SCC/
If you know anyone who speaks Arabic, you could ask them to check what happened in the meeting on 5th Nov 2022.. the third decision on that meeting you will find that the status of case number 120 for the judicial year 36 (this is law 32 case) has been booked for ruling on 14th Jan 2023 and that is clear on the site now..
And subsequently the media reported that..
https://www.youm7.com/story/2022/11/6/14-%D9%8A%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%83%D9%85-%D9%81%D9%89-%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%88%D9%89-%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%85-%D8%AF%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A5%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%B9%D9%86/5967349
I will let you know on Saturday the decision ..
Siko
Hi Steve,
The SCC commissioners report has not been published yet, which of course will give a big hint about the verdict.
Last time their recommendation was to cancel the law as they thought it was unconstitutional. Seems like the SCC did not like the commissioners recommendation and asked them to reconsider their recommendation and re-write the report.
The SCC does not have to agree with the commissioners or accept their recommendation, but it would be odd to go against their recommendation.
If the SCC decides that law 32 is constitutional, then no one could appeal against state contracts, then Centamin court case gets cancelled altogether as if it never existed because the law applies to all existing cases where no final verdict was delivered.
If the SCC decides that law 32 is unconstitutional, then the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) starts Centamin case again at the appeal stage.
Remember that the initial court ruling was only to limit the area allocated to Centamin to 3km sq area because no signed contract was submitted for the 162km sq area, which Centamin has submitted later during the appeal (I sent a link here for the signed contract).
Hello everyone,
I'm in Egypt now..
Do you still remember the court case?
Do you remember how it has been suspended because of an appeal in the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) against law 32 which prevented appeals against state contracts?
Well, I have been told that the SCC has finally decided to deliver the verdict on 14th January 2023.
It's such a shame that the bulletin board became like this.. This bb used to be a great place..
Sorry for not contributing anymore, but I found it better this way..
By the way, I have been working for the NHS for over 22 years, front line every day, I ran covid vaccine clinics for months, I could say a lot, but as others said this is not the place..
I wish you all the best with your investments..
GLA,
Siko
The court case is annoying, but here are the facts in a few lines:
The first court refused all the requests of Alfakharany (the person who filed the case).
The court decided to limit Centamin's exploitation area to 3sq km due to the absence of a signed contract for the 160sq km area as the contracts was not submitted with the case papers, and that was the only reason for their decision, the absence of the contract.
The commissioners filed a report supporting Alfakharany, but there were no facts at all in their report to support their recommendation.
The signed contract was submitted in the appeal.
This link contains the signed contract as it was published in the official national news paper, which clearly states that the exploitation area is 160sq km.
https://gate.ahram.org.eg/Media/News/2017/2/26/2017-636237440887317058-731.pdf
And this link contains the map of the exploitation area, stating 160sq km , with exact coordinates.
https://gate.ahram.org.eg/Media/News/2017/2/26/2017-636237441742747904-274.pdf
All signed by the minister of petroleum according to the law.
Unfortunately, the new law issued to prevent appeals against state's contracts, and the subsequent appeal against it, which is still in the supreme constitutional court, all this paused Centamin's case.
Hi again Cowichan :)
As you know, I have been away from this BB for a while, but I have some spare time today, so I will read a few posts and reply if I could add anything from what I know.
Further to your post about Mr Campbell and AKH gold, the result of the second round of the auctions was actually unofficially announced on Tuesday , and AKH gold won, together with Lotus gold, Ankh resources and Marine Logistic. Centamin name was not mentioned. I don't know if they actually applied or not.
And you are correct.. Egyptian media refers to AKH gold as Mr Sawiris.
https://www.dostor.org/4092159
https://elbarima.com/%D8%A3%D8%AE-%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%84%D8%AF-%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%AF-%D8%AA%D9%81%D9%88%D8%B2-%D8%A8%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%81%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A9-%D8%A7/
Hi Cowichan,
Egypt has a problem with foreign currencies, especially US dollar. US dollar is in high demand in Egypt and the national reserve is not huge. The Egyptian pound lost around 10 percent of its value against the US dollar at the beginning of May.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) wants to increase its gold reserve, but of course that would require millions of dollars, which to secure would apply more pressure on the currency situation.
Centamin's income is all in US dollars, and they need to convert some of it to Egyptian pound in order to pay it's local expenses in Egypt. They could convert US dollar to Egyptian pound at any bank in Egypt, so CBE and Centamin signed an agreement in 2017 by which centamin supplies CBE with refined gold bars, and the CBE pays to Centamin the value in Egyptian pound according to the international market price of gold and US dollar/Egyptian pound exchange rate.
This way Centamin is not losing anything, and the CBE gets the gold they want paying with Egyptian pound without applying further pressure on the currency situation.
The agreement was for the CBE to get gold for the equivalent of 50 million Egyptian pound (around 3 million US dollars) per month, which recently increased to 80 millions.
Siko
PS. How is everyone here? I hope you all are doing well.
Good luck.
Hi Cowichan,
That baby's story actually had a happy ending and he is at his new home now..
I'm going to Egypt this weekend, and the stuff I see there is unspeakable.. Every time I go thinking about what I would see during my trip, and every trip is a new lesson and a new eye opener.. and I come back to England thinking how spoilt we are here..
The people in Egypt really help each other out.. and life goes on..
At the beginning of every month, my mum gets around 10 families knocking on her door to get their monthly allowances from her, this is the normal in Egypt, and with thousands of people like my mum, thousands of those desperate families keep going..
There is a completely different life to what we know here ..
Hi all,
It seems like the quote (Good times are coming) that I had posted here a few years ago after one of my chats with my dear and great friend, Mr Esmat ElRaghy (May he RIP), is still causing problems..
I'm sorry if that quote had led to your disappointment..
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm still here, reading all your posts, invested with my few pennies, but my participation in the BB is very limited now for personal reasons..
Thanks for those who get in touch every so often.. I'm good, just got back from Egypt and everything is going very well..
GLA with your investment..
Siko
https://economyplusme.com/71458/
Barrick Gold signed their contract with Egypt.
https://youtu.be/NEDqynoU9d0
Egyptian TV news announces the news of signing the new contract with Centamin and B2Gold with a video showing Martin Horgan signing the contract...
Now waiting now for the RNS...
https://www.elwatannews.com/news/details/5577094
https://www.dostor.org/3508599
Martin Horgan signed the contract for the new licence with the petroleum minister today..
Out of the 11 companies that had won in the recent auctions, there were only 4 left to sign contracts (Centamin, Barrick, B2Gold and Nuba mining).
Today Nuba signed the contracts..
So 3 more to go..
Hopefully our turn is soon..
https://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/2329328
There is no more information out, just what's in the article, but I don't think this has anything to do with the court case to be honest..
The 24 blocks, if true, is very good, considering there were 82 blocks allocated to 11 winning companies.. so Centamin got nearly the third of the blocks..
Will let you know if anything else appears..