Investigators of the Giza Security Directorate are intensifying their investigations into the incident of accusing the owner of the house, whose surveillance cameras recorded the collision that led to the death of 4 students, accusing two lawyers of trying to seize the camera's recording device, claiming that they belong to a judicial authority Where the owner of the house refused to hand them over the device, and the next day he went to the Public Prosecution office, which is conducting an investigation into the accident, to verify the identity of the two persons, and was surprised by them among the lawyers affiliated with the accused, so he charged them with attempting to damage the recording device for the cameras, and they were seized, and the investigation is underway. With them in the accusation against them, and chasing two people who accompanied them to seize them.
In the same context, Al-Dustour contacted the legal expert and lawyer in cassation, Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Farhat, to find out the law that stipulates the penalty for impersonation and the destruction of cameras.
Punishment for the crime of impersonation
The legal expert, Abd al-Rahman Farahat, stated that in the case of individuals impersonating surnames for the purpose of clearing interests, fraud or theft, or even wearing a military uniform, imprisonment and a fine are imposed, and Article No. 155 states, to Article No. 159 reads as follows: “Whoever interferes in any of the public positions, whether royal or military, without having an official capacity from the government or permission from the government to do so, or performs a work that is one of the requirements of one of these positions, shall be punished with imprisonment.”
Article 156 also states: “Whoever publicly wears an official clothing without having the rank that authorizes him to do so, or who publicly wears the distinctive sign of a job or position without a right, shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year.”
As stipulated in Article No. 157: “A fine not exceeding two hundred pounds shall be imposed on anyone who publicly wears a medal that he did not grant, or who also names himself with a title of honor, a rank, a job, or a general representative capacity without right.”
He added that Article 158 stipulates: “A fine not exceeding two hundred Egyptian pounds shall be imposed on every Egyptian who publicly wears a foreign title without right or without the permission of the President of the Republic, or who also calls himself a foreign honorary title or a foreign rank.”
Adding that Article No. 159 states: “In the cases provided for in the two previous articles, the court may order the publication of the entire judgment or the publication of its summary in the newspapers of its choice, and the publication shall be at the expense of the convict.”
Penalty for destroying surveillance cameras
The legal expert said that Law No. 154 of 2019 regarding commercial stores stipulates: “It is prohibited to erase, alter or disturb the content of the recordings or broadcast them in any of the audio-visual media or the Internet Except after the approval of the Minister of Interior, that whoever deletes any registration, or makes changes to it, shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding 3 years, and a fine of not less than 2,000 pounds and not more than 10,000.”
He explained that the prison sentence for those who deliberately damage surveillance cameras and recording devices ranges from 5 to 7 years and does not exceed that, indicating that in the case of a purpose other than damaging cameras, the penalty period ranges from 7 to 10 years.
He concluded that if the crime leads to terrorist acts, the penalty is heavy, which is life imprisonment.