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.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
RSS