Egypt's emergency laws extended
2003-02-24 08:07
Cairo - Egypt's parliament on Sunday approved a three-year extension to the country's wide-reaching emergency laws, first imposed following the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
Prime Minister Atef Obeid urged lawmakers during a parliamentary address to back draft legislation to extend the laws in light of the ongoing war on terrorism and "to ensure the security of the nation and citizens".
Egypt's semiofficial Middle East News Agency said 30 lawmakers within the 454-member parliament, dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party, opposed the bill. It was unclear if there were any abstentions.
An Egyptian human rights leader immediately criticised the extension, saying the laws infringe upon freedom of expression and association, restrict civil society and justify arbitrary arrests and referring people to military tribunals.
"This law will remain a sword that hangs over freedoms and rights granted by the Egyptian constitution," Hafez Abu Saada, the secretary general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, said.
Advocacy groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly condemned Egypt's use of emergency laws, saying they are used to crack down on the government's political opponents.
Independent lawmaker Mohammed Morsi, who belongs to the banned Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement, said his group "vehemently opposes" the law's extension.
"It is totally unjustified, especially considering that the government has repeatedly said there is no terrorism in Egypt," Morsi said. "The ruling party has been using this law to curb ... its political opponents."
The government has used the laws to routinely arrest and refer Muslim Brotherhood members to military courts, whose verdicts can only be overturned by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Obeid told lawmakers that the government "will not use this law to undermine freedoms...but that it will be used only to ensure and protect the nation and to abort sabotage attempts".
Emergency laws were imposed in Egypt in 1981 after Islamic extremists assassinated Sadat during a military parade. The laws have been routinely renewed every three years.
Authorities say the laws are needed to fight Islamic extremists. Such forces began a violent campaign in the late 1980s aimed at toppling Egypt's secular government, in which about 1 200 people, mainly police and extremists, were killed.
There have been no attacks in Egypt since the 1997 Luxor massacre, where 58 tourists were killed. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA