68. The Respondent State further submits that the Egyptian Government has not appealed against such ruling of the Administrative Court, instead the appeal was made by lawyers who intervened in the case. 69. In consequence, the Respondent submits, the two Complainants have the right to rely on these provisions with a view to obtaining the identification card and the official documents leaving the religion column vacant. 70. For the above reasons, the Respondent State requests the Commission not to admit the Complaint because the subject of the Complaint is now over, for the Complainants have the right to approach the Administrative bodies to get the official documents in accordance with the final judicial decisions passed by the Administrative Judicial Court. C. Supplementary submissions of the Respondent State 71. In its supplementary submission, the Respondent State draws the attention of the Commission to the decision of the High Administrative Court which examined the appeal by the Complainants on 16 March 2009 and decided unanimously not to accept it on the grounds that the Egyptian Government had not challenged the aforementioned decision, but instead it was challenged by those who intervened on their own behalf. 72. Therefore, according to the Respondent State, the ruling in favour of the Complainants that they should be issued identification cards with the religion column left blank is final and legally binding. 73. The Respondent State also makes reference to Decision No. 520 issued on 19 March 2009 by the Ministry of Interior to implement the above final ruling. The Decision amends the executive provision of the Civil Code by adding a third new paragraph to Article 33 which enables all followers of the Baha’i faith and all those in a similar situation to be able to request their previous identification cards and other relevant documents to be corrected in line with the final ruling. 74. The above Ministerial Decision, according to the Respondent State, makes reference to the following legal conclusions: I. the rule on the implementation of the Civil Code Act 143 of 1994 and the administrative ruling in favour of some followers of the Baha’i faith, should be incorporated into the legal texts as they have legitimized this 10

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