The Egyptian Senate approved on Sunday a bill to amend the Disabled Persons Act to counter the crime of bullying against people with special needs, the privately owned al-Watan newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Senate approved the proposal submitted by parliament member Hossam al-Khouly, the head of the Nation’s Future Party’s Senate Bloc, to toughen current penalties in the draft law submitted by MP Mohamed al-Sallab and over 60 other members.

Khouly’s proposal stated that: “A bully is punished by imprisonment for a period of no less than two years and a fine of not less than LE50,000 and not more than LE100,000 or one of these two penalties.”

The penalty shall be imprisonment for a period of no less than three years and a fine of not less than LE100,000 and not exceeding LE200,000, or one of these two penalties if the crime is committed by two or more persons or if the perpetrator is one of the relatives of the victim or one of those responsible for their upbringing or observation, or those with authority over the victim, or if the victim was delivered according to the law or according to a court ruling.

If the crime involved perpetrators from both categories (relative and not related), the minimum penalty will be doubled.

Repeat offenders will have the penalty’s minimum-maximum limits doubled.

This came during the plenary session of the Senate on Sunday to discuss the report of the Constitutional and Legislative Committee of the Senate, on a bill amending some provisions of Law #10 of 2018 regarding the rights of people with special needs.