Egypt state of emergency to go

2007-08-04 21:41

Cairo - Egypt will lift by next June the state of emergency in place for more than 25 years, even if new anti-terrorist legislation is not passed, Judicial Affairs Minister Mufid Shehab was quoted on Saturday as saying.

"Whether the law on terrorism is passed by this date or not, the government will lift the state of emergency by the end of June 2008," Shehab said, according to state news agency Mena.

The new legislation is set to be presented to the National Assembly before that date, he added.

During presidential elections in 2005, President Hosni Mubarak pledged to lift the state of emergency, but a year later said it would remain in force until new anti-terrorism legislation was passed.

The state of emergency was first proclaimed in 1967. It was briefly lifted in 1980 for eighteen months, before being re-imposed after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat by Islamist militants.

Opposition parties and non-governmental organisations fear that any new legislation will also attack human rights.

Last March, rights group Amnesty International criticised an amendment to the constitution, proposed by Mubarak, that would enable the authorities to arrest suspects, search their homes, intercept their mail and eavesdrop their conversations without a judicial mandate.

Egypt has also been slammed at home and abroad over recent revelations of torture in police stations, and has routinely been criticised for its arbitrary arrests of dissidents and restrictions on civil society.

- AFP