Egypt extended an emergency law for two years on Tuesday while promising to limit its use, but analysts said it could still be used to stifle dissent and Washington urged Cairo to repeal the measure.
Ending the emergency law has long been a call of government critics and it has been a rallying cry of protests in Cairo since April 6 — which have been small by global standards but unusual in Egypt, where security quickly quashes dissent.
The state has long said terror and drug cases were the focus of the law, in force since the 1981 assassination of then-president Anwar Sadat. Analysts say it is a legal ploy that masks the law’s violation of basic human rights.
Egypt’s parliament, dominated by President Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party, passed the extension with about three-quarters of the vote after intense debate led by the opposition.
About 200 protesters — including former presidential candidate Ayman Nour, Muslim Brotherhood lawmakers and labor leaders — gathered outside parliament before the vote.
“Down, down with emergency law. Down, down with military rule,” chanted protesters, surrounded by hundreds of police.
The US, a major donor and close ally, said it was “disappointed” over the law’s extension and called on Egypt to replace it with a counterterrorism law that “protects the civil liberties and dignity of Egyptian citizens.”
“We urge Egypt to complete its promised counterterrorism legislation on an urgent basis and repeal the State of Emergency,” Robert Gibbs, US President Barack Obama’s press secretary, said in a statement. “We believe Egypt missed an opportunity today to signal its embrace of these universal values to the rest of the world.”
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said: “Instead of cosmetic changes to the emergency law, the government needs to repeal it and restore the basic rights of its citizens.”
The group said Egypt had promised before to curb the law but had reneged. It said the law had been used against the Muslim Brotherhood, rights activists and bloggers.
Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told parliament the extension request came with a commitment the government would only use it to deal with “the threat of terrorism and narcotics, and only to the extent necessary to confront these dangers.”
“The emergency law will not be used to undermine freedoms or infringe upon rights if these two threats are not involved,” he said in a speech before parliament voted.
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