Amid protests, government seeks extension of emergency law in Egypt, with some limitations

Egypt government seeks extension of emergency law

CAIRO — Egypt’s government on Tuesday called for a two-year extension of the country’s controversial emergency law but claimed its use would now be limited. Human rights activists dismissed the changes and warned the law would continue to be used to suppress dissent.

The emergency law, in place for nearly 30 years, gives police broad powers of arrest and allows indefinite detention without charge. Democracy advocates and human rights groups have long said the law is used to silence critics, pointing to the arrest of bloggers, political activists and others.

More than 100 opposition lawmakers and activists protested Tuesday outside parliament demanding lawmakers reject any extension of the law. Parliament, which is dominated by ruling party members, was due to vote on the measure Tuesday and was certain to pass it, as it has repeatedly in the past.

The extension comes ahead of parliamentary elections due later this year and presidential elections set for 2011.

While seeking to continue the emergency law until May 31, 2012, the government is “for the first time” committing to limit its use to cases involving terrorism and the drug trade, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moufid Shehab told reporters.

He acknowledged that in the past, the law had been applied “in a general fashion” to other types of cases. Shehab said that the extension also abolishes a few of the wide powers given to police, including the power to censure or close media and publications and to monitor communications.

The admission was unusual, since the government has long insisted that the emergency law was only used in terrorism or drug cases and denied the law was abused.

Shehab said that police would still have the same extensive powers to hold suspects without charge in terror and drug cases, though he underlined that detentions are subject to review by special courts.

In many cases, however, detainees have been held despite court orders, and rights groups said there is no accountability in arrests. Activists said Tuesday the new promises gave little guarantee of change.

“These statements are similar to those they have been giving for years, which we know are contrary to the truth,” said Soha Abdelati, of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. “People are arrested for all sorts of reasons. We don’t feel these new statements provide any safety blanket.”

“People have been arrested under the emergency law for a range of issues, including freedom of speech and cases of freedom of religion,” Abdelati told The Associated Press. “It’s common for the Interior Ministry to abuse all its privileges under the emergency law, so as long as the law is applied, there are not enough guarantees that abuses won’t take place.”

A number of bloggers have been detained under the emergency law, including Hany Nazeer, a Christian arrested in 2008 after posting an item seen as insulting to Islam, and Mosaad Suleiman Hassan, an activist who wrote about discrimination against Bedouin in the Sinai Peninsula, jailed since 2007.

Shehab said anyone wrongly detained can appeal against their detention and if the court finds they are not connected to a terror or drug case, they will be freed.

The emergency law was put in place after the 1981 assassination of then-President Anwar Sadat by Islamic militants, and it has been renewed constantly since.

Shehab said its extension was necessary because of continued terrorism threats against Egypt, pointing to bombings against tourist resorts in the Sinai in the 2000s and weapons smuggling across the Egypt-Gaza border.