Punishment Merging in Egyptian Law By Mohamed Gamal

The article no. 36 in penal law states that “if someone commits various crimes before being sentenced for one, the period of aggravating prison should not exceed 20 years, even if in the case of various punishments the prison period should not exceed 20

years and imprisonment for 6 months”.
Sentence of moral multiplicity of crimes
The Egyptian legislator addresses the sentence of moral or pro forma sentence in the text of article no. 32 in penal law that states in its first clause “if there are various crimes, the crime with the most punishment should be considered and the criminal is to be sentenced with this crime only”. This article reveals that punishments do not vary in the case of moral multiplicity of crimes, yet the judge should pass a judgment with the most punishment crime among the different stated punishments.
Concrete multiplicity
The concrete or real multiplicity of crimes happens when the criminal committed many criminal actions each forms independent crime.
Sentence of concrete multiplicity of crimes
The legislator puts general rule in the case of concrete or real multiplicity of crimes; namely various punishments according to article no. 33 in penal law that states that “various punishments for freedom except what is excepting by the two articles 35 and 36 in penal law.”
• Article no. 35 in penal law states that “hard labor punishment should be sentenced with its period for each punishment for freedom sentenced for the crime that committed before sentence with the previously mentioned hard labor”.
• The article no. 36 in penal law states that “if someone commits various crimes before being sentenced for one, the period of aggravating prison should not exceed 20 years, even if in the case of various punishments the prison period should not exceed 20 years and imprisonment for 6 months”.
Sample Cases
The case A.F deposited in Port Said public prison and according to the article no. 32 in penal law in its second clause that states “if many crimes are committed for one purpose and are related and integrated then they should be considered one crime and to be sentenced with the most punishment crime”.
With this text, the legislator put an exception to the rule of punishment multiplicity in the case of concrete or real multiplicity of crimes; namely that the related and integrated crimes and though they are included in forms of concrete multiplicity of crimes as every crime is independent from the other one, yet it should be considered as one crime that is to be sentenced with the most punishment crime.
For that exception, it is conditioned:
• The various crimes are committed for one purpose.
• The various crimes are related and integrated.
The procedures:
• Submitting requests of “punishment merging” to the Attorney General.
• The request submitted to the Attorney General must include information about cases number, their types and how much they are related to each other from the prison department.
• The public prison police commissioner signs and approves the request and sends it to two bodies; namely “The Egyptian Prisons’ Department & International Cooperation Office”.
• The International Cooperation Office copies the sent memorandum, investigates it and resends it to the public prosecution which makes memorandum in all cases and submits it to the Attorney General who approves it and resends it to the International Cooperation Office in court of cassation.
• The office after that submits the memorandum to the Attorney General to issue release decision to merge the punishment of the prisoner and sends the memorandum to the prison to which the prisoner is affiliated.
• Then the prison sends the release memorandum to the Egyptian Prisons’ Department to exclude the prisoner from prisoners’ lists in paving the way for releasing him.
Difficulties faced by the Legal Defend Unit
• Slow decision regarding requests of punishment merging.
• The period of attaching the prosecution memorandum with punishment merging request may reach more than one month and half. Lack of legal awareness