Egypt extends emergency law
2006-04-30 21:52
Cairo - Parliament ignored a growing chorus of opposition on Sunday and approved a two-year extension of the emergency law President Hosni Mubarak slapped on the country nearly 25 years ago when he took power after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
The People's Assembly voted 287-to-91 to extend the law beyond its May 31 expiration.
It gives security forces broad powers to arrest and detain suspects and has been broadly criticised by human rights organisations.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told parliamentarians the extension was important to the government's effort to combat terrorism, reported the official Middle East News Agency.
Many shouted slogans
Nazif called terrorism a "vicious tool of destruction" bent on destroying the efforts of Egyptians' "labour, sweat and money".
"Terrorism does not differentiate between states, people or religions," he told parliament.
Opposition legislators, many wearing white and black sashes reading "No to the emergency law," shouted anti-government slogans while Nazif spoke.
Mohammad Saad al-Katatni, a spokesman for parliamentarians affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which opposes the emergency laws, said Mubarak's National Democratic Party used its overwhelming majority in the 454-seat parliament to pass the extension.
The Brotherhood's deputy leader said the laws aimed to "silence the opposition".
"The government has no intention of launching real political reforms. It aims to tighten its grip," Mohammad Habib said, adding that the government had failed to end terrorism despite repeated renewal of the laws.
Pressure from US, too
Human-rights groups and opposition parties had stepped up pressure on Mubarak to scrap the law.
The United States, Egypt's top source of foreign aid, has also urged an end to the emergency measure as part of a larger strategy to democratise the Arab world's most-populous nation.
Mubarak has said that he ordered the ruling party to propose new anti-terrorism legislation to replace the emergency laws, but said such legislation could take two years to draft.
- AP