Massive anti-terror clampdown in Egypt
CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approved an antiterrorism law that sets up special courts and protects its enforcers in the face of a two-year-long Islamist insurgency that aims to topple his government.
The law has come under fire from human rights groups who accuse Sisi, who as military chief deposed a freely elected Islamist president in 2013, of rolling back freedoms won in the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Approved on Sunday, the law details sentences for various terrorism crimes ranging from five years to the death penalty. It also shields those applying it, such as the military and police, from legal ramifications for what it calls the proportionate use of force “in performing their duties”.
Sisi had promised a tougher legal system last month after a car bomb attack in Cairo that killed the chief public prosecutor, the highestranking state official to be killed in years.
The law, as reported by state media, said special courts would fast-track terrorism cases but gave no further details, such as whether trials would be open or closed to the public.
Under the new law, forming or leading a group deemed a “terrorist entity” by the government will be punishable by death or life in prison. Membership in such a group will carry up to 10 years in jail.
Financing “terrorist groups” will bring a penalty of life in prison, which in Egypt is 25 years. Inciting violence, including “promoting ideas that call for violence”, will lead to five to seven years in jail, as would creating or using websites that spread such ideas.
Journalists will be fined for contradicting the authorities’ version of any militant attack.
The original draft of the law was amended following a domestic and international outcry after it initially stipulated imprisonment for such an offence.
“This is taking us back to the Mubarak era and the 30-year state of emergency that helped push Egyptians to the streets in 2011,” Mohamed Elmessiry, Egypt researcher at Amnesty International, said in a statement.
“Despite security forces having a record of excessive use of force, this law… paves the way for impunity.” Elmessiry also said the law would in effect remove the current two-year limit on pre-trial detention by allowing prosecutors to ask to renew suspects’ detention indefinitely.
“The law contravenes the Egyptian constitution and national laws, let alone international law,” he added.
Egypt is facing an increasingly violent insurgency in North Sinai, where the most active militant group has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Cairo and other cities have also seen militant attacks.
The insurgency, which has killed hundreds of soldiers and police, has intensified since mid2013 when then-army chief Sisi ousted President Mohamed Mursi, a top figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, after unrest against his rule.
Sisi has since overseen a security crackdown on Islamists. Thousands of alleged Islamist supporters have been jailed and scores sentenced to death, including Mursi and other senior Brotherhood figures. – Reuters