Weston White
08-17-2015, 07:16 AM
Egypt Passes Terrorism Law Seen as Tool to Crush Dissenters (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-17/egypt-passes-anti-terrorism-law-amid-growing-islamist-insurgency)
Egypt passed an anti-terrorism law that gives authorities more powers to crush a growing Islamist insurgency in a move that critics of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi say aims to stifle dissent and the freedom of expression.
Leading members of any group classified as a terrorist organization will face a life sentence or the death penalty, according to the law that was passed Sunday night. Advocating terrorist acts “directly or indirectly” will be punished by a jail term of at least five years.
The law also gives the president, subject to parliamentary approval, the right to close off areas, impose curfews and evict citizens. Journalists would risk paying fines from 200,000 to 500,000 pounds ($64,000) for publishing reports on militant attacks that deviate from the government’s narrative. An initial draft of the law had originally stipulated two years in prison for violators.
The law “considers as terrorism every criticism or dissenting voice or act not to the liking of authorities,” Gamal Eid, head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said on Twitter.
. . .
Critics of the president, the ultimate arbiter in Egypt where parliament has been shut for three years, say that while harsher laws are unlikely to curb militancy, they will give legal cover to the crushing of political dissent.
“Measures that authorities take on the ground are tougher than what’s included in this law,” said Negad El-Borai, a lawyer and former secretary general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. “All what this law does is sanction some of the abuses that are actually happening.”
Egypt passed an anti-terrorism law that gives authorities more powers to crush a growing Islamist insurgency in a move that critics of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi say aims to stifle dissent and the freedom of expression.
Leading members of any group classified as a terrorist organization will face a life sentence or the death penalty, according to the law that was passed Sunday night. Advocating terrorist acts “directly or indirectly” will be punished by a jail term of at least five years.
The law also gives the president, subject to parliamentary approval, the right to close off areas, impose curfews and evict citizens. Journalists would risk paying fines from 200,000 to 500,000 pounds ($64,000) for publishing reports on militant attacks that deviate from the government’s narrative. An initial draft of the law had originally stipulated two years in prison for violators.
The law “considers as terrorism every criticism or dissenting voice or act not to the liking of authorities,” Gamal Eid, head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said on Twitter.
. . .
Critics of the president, the ultimate arbiter in Egypt where parliament has been shut for three years, say that while harsher laws are unlikely to curb militancy, they will give legal cover to the crushing of political dissent.
“Measures that authorities take on the ground are tougher than what’s included in this law,” said Negad El-Borai, a lawyer and former secretary general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. “All what this law does is sanction some of the abuses that are actually happening.”