However, Wahid Fakhri al-Uksory, the defense attorney of 24 plaintiffs (military and civilian prisoners of war), told Al-Monitor, “I have documentaries — including the Israeli film ' The Shaked Spirit ' [Shaked was an Israeli defense unit] — confirming that Israel murdered hundreds of Egyptian prisoners of war.” He said that these crimes cannot be dropped by pleading the statute of limitations, as per Israeli Law No. 5710 of 1950.

On Jan. 23, Egypt’s El-Watan newspaper published documents that the government had given to the court before the ruling. They read, “Between 1995 and 2007, Egypt called on Israel to investigate the crimes that Israeli soldiers committed during the two wars and tried to regain the rights of the prisoners of war. But Egypt’s Foreign Ministry faced difficulties at the time in getting sufficient evidence to prove the occurrence of the crimes.”

Nasser Amin, the director of the complaints’ office at the National Human Rights Council and lawyer at the International Criminal Court (ICC), said in a press statement Jan. 21, “The verdict forces the Egyptian government to take judicial measures against Israel and reflects Egypt’s slackening in this regard, calling for legal measures to hand over the criminals to justice.”

In 2001, released Egyptian soldiers who survived captivity and the families of deceased soldiers filed a lawsuit with the State Council, asking the Egyptian government to prosecute Israel internationally and give them their wasted rights due to the torture in Israeli prisons in the wake of the wars. Egyptian prisoners of war were caught during the attacks between Israel on the one hand, and Egypt, Syria and Jordan on the other, on Egyptian territory in 1956 and 1967. Today, 16 years later, the court has ruled in their favor.

CAIRO — On Jan. 21, Egypt’s High Administrative Court issued a final verdict forcing the Egyptian government to prosecute Israel internationally for committing acts of violence and torture against Egyptian prisoners of war during the 1956 and 1967 wars. The verdict brought back to the forefront Israel’s crimes against hundreds of Egyptian prisoners of war more than half a century ago and raised questions about whether Cairo will abide by the verdict.

Uksory called for treating Egyptians in the same way that Israelis were treated following the Nazi Holocaust when they received compensation from Germany.

The Reparations Agreement that forced Germany to compensate Jews who survived the Nazi Holocaust from 1933 until the end of World War II was signed between the two countries on Sept. 10, 1952, and is considered the most significant case of prisoner of war compensation.

Spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry Ahmed Abu Zeid told Al-Monitor over the phone, “We have not been notified yet to start implementing the verdict.”

He added, “Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and the country’s political administration have to assign the tasks of the Foreign Ministry before the latter can proceed with the implementation” of the court’s order.

Uksory, who heads Egypt’s Arab Socialist Party, indicated that he is waiting to receive the verdict’s final formulation. As soon as that happens, he said he would accompany the families of the prisoners of war to the Egyptian government’s premises to inform it of the verdict and pave the way for its enforcement. He noted, “The government, represented by the prime minister, the foreign minister, the minister of defense, the minister of social solidarity and the public prosecutor — as per the text of the verdict — has to resort to whatever it takes to reach international courts and claim compensation for the prisoners of war who were killed.”

The court’s ruling read, “Israel signed the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war in August 1949. This forces Israel to investigate with and prosecute Israeli criminals of war who committed crimes against detainees and civilians.”

Member of the International Association of Lawyers Khaled Abu Bakr told Al-Monitor that the verdict is legally problematic for Egypt, in case it decides to implement it. He explained that resorting to the International Court of Justice necessitates the approval of the two disputing states. The ICC, for its part, pursues individual war criminals when there is sufficient proof to condemn them and does not accuse or condemn governments or organizations. He added that the political resorting to the United Nations Security Council to form a special international court requires the approval of all the council’s members.

Bakr said, “There are many problematic points at the moment.”

For his part, Amr Hashem Rabih, the deputy head of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor, “International law considers Israel a 'disobedient' state that does not respect international law, and it is difficult to obtain any legal or judicial gains from the US-backed Israeli state in the Security Council.”

He said, “If we were to explore the possibility of Israel paying compensation for the Egyptian prisoners of war due to the Egyptian steps, we would realize it is effectively a far-fetched ambition. Israel has committed many crimes against the Palestinians, and the international community has never been able to stop it from committing more.”

Rabih added, “Egypt might be able to gain moral impetus by internationalizing the case before the Security Council to expose the crimes. The Egyptian government would then prove to its citizens that it is not taking the abuse of their rights lying down.”

The director of the Israeli-Palestinian Research Unit at the National Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Tarek Fahmi, told Al-Monitor, “The issue of prisoners of war between Egypt and Israel falls in the category of affairs kept in the dark.”

He noted that the Camp David Accord stipulates in one of its clauses a financial settlement for the wars between Egypt and Israel. But this still has not happened. Fahmi said, “The verdict has legal and political dimensions, and the political one prevails. Before delving into the legal side and prosecuting Israel, Egyptian political will must be present, but this is not the case now.”

He asserted that the current rapprochement between Egypt and Israel does not allow for internationalizing the prisoner of war compensation case, and he indicated that Israel holds pressure cards also. It can easily bring up the case of compensation for Israeli soldiers who were held by the Egyptian military in the same wars and their release — a point that Bakr had also raised.

Fahmi added, “I do not think that the Egyptian government will prosecute Israel under the current circumstances. Consequently, the verdict becomes symbolic, despite its importance, since it lacks clear methods of enforcement.”

Uksory, who has waited for 16 years for this verdict, insists on the government’s implementation of it. He said, “It is a tough nut to crack. But I will follow up on the implementation of this verdict until my last breath.”