Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has approved stringent new counter-terrorism laws to fight a growing jihadist insurgency. Those who support such entities will also be punished with life imprisonment and promoters of “ideas that call for violence” through all mediums will have between five and seven year jail terms.
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Military and police officers who use force will be offered special protection from legal consequences.
Rights activists said the new law is even more draconian, with Mohamed Zaree, Egypt program manager at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, describing it as “a covert emergency law”.
The judiciary and security forces already had wide-ranging powers in tackling “terrorism”, and Sisi’s regime has been accused of using the battle against jihadists as a pretext for crushing dissent.At least 1,400 people, many of them Morsi supporters, have been killed in a crackdown on protests since his overthrow.
Analysts say that attack was likely the work of one of the other Islamist insurgency groups in Egypt that are mostly active in the Sinai Peninsula. Since then, the government has claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist group.
Veteran strongman Mubarak was forced out in early 2011 by a popular uprising.
The 54-article law sets a minimum fine of 200,000 Egyptian pounds (about 25,000 U.S. dollars) and a maximum of 500,000 pounds for journalists whose publications contradict government statements on attacks or security operations against militants.
His instructions came after the state’s top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, was assassinated in a auto bombing in late June.
“It criminalizes all peaceful forms of organization and freedom of expression and aims to muzzle the mouth of Egyptians and terrorize them”, the group said. Egypt is yet to elect a parliament and the president exercises legislative powers.
Sisi had promised a tougher legal system in July after a auto bomb attack in Cairo killed the chief public prosecutor, the highest ranking state official to be killed in years.
The polls were due to be held from March 21 until May 7, but the constitutional appeals against the newly-drafted election law delayed the process.
Suspected militants will be tried in special fast-track courts.
The government has also pushed back aggressively against the foreign media, which officials and the pro-government media frequently accuse of bias against the government or exaggerating the scale of militant attacks.
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Pending parliamentary approval, al-Sisi will be able to impose curfews, evict citizens and close off areas.
