In April, the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters nullified the Supreme Administrative Court’s final ruling issued in January, declaring the transfer of the Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia as void. Egyptian rights lawyer, Khaled Ali, had filed a lawsuit demanding the suspension of the verdict from the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters, which had ruled to revoke the High Administrative Court’s final decision to uphold Egypt’s sovereignty over the two islands. Egypt’s Administrative Court had set June 6 as the date to rule on the controversial legal jurisdiction dispute regarding the Egyptian-Saudi maritime border demarcation. “The Administrative Court said the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters has no jurisdiction whatsoever over the provisions of this case; it’s void,” Ali said after the first hearing. Egypt maintains that it never had full sovereignty over the two islands and was simply controlling them administratively.

Source: Egypt Independent May 29, 2017 14:26 UTC