Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court Postpones its Decision on the Appeal

In its session today, Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court postponed its verdict on the appeal by the Islamist lawyer, named Abd El-Mageed El-Aanany, who was not a party to lawsuits brought by the Baha'is in their quest for obtaining ID cards and birth certificates. Cairo's Administrative Court had ruled in favor of the Baha'is on 29 January 2008, and allowed them to obtain ID cards and birth certificates with dashes [--] inserted in place of religious identification.

Instead of ruling on the case today, the Supreme Administrative Court decided to announce its final verdict regarding the appeal during its upcoming session of 2 February 2009.

Such an appeal is not an obstacle to enforcing the lower court's ruling unless the court had decided to stop the implementation of the said ruling. The courts have not done so, thus there are no barriers to the government's enforcement of the lower court's ruling. So far, not a single Baha'i in Egypt has been able to obtain identification documents under this ruling.

Additionally, the Supreme Administrative Court's own State Judiciary Council had considered the appeal and had rejected it. The court is expected to abide by the decision of the Council.