Egypt’s anti-terror draft law targets heart of basic freedoms: Amnesty
Amnesty International has slammed a new Egyptian anti-terror draft law, referring to it as a "strike at the very heart of basic freedoms."
“The proposed counter-terrorism law vastly expands the Egyptian authorities’ powers and threatens the most fundamental rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association," said Said Boumedouha, the rights group’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director, in a report published on Wednesday.
If the Egyptian parliament approves the bill, it can be ratified within days after it is signed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Boumedouha added that if approved, it will become another tool for the Egyptian authorities to crush dissent.
“The draconian new measures would effectively place a gag order on journalists attempting to independently report facts as they perceive them. It is a plain effort by the authorities to blackmail and intimidate journalists who challenge the official narrative,” he noted.
The draft bill was introduced by the State Council shortly after the assassination of state prosecutor Hisham Barakat and a series of lethal attacks targeting security forces in June.
According to Egyptian media reports, the anti-terrorism law would further empower prosecutors to detain suspects for long periods and allow authorities to inspect the bank accounts of those accused of terror-related charges.
The UN Human Rights Council has repeatedly voiced concern over the Egyptian security forces’ heavy-handed crackdown and the killing of peaceful anti-government protesters.
Egypt has been the scene of massive anti-government protests with continuous clashes between security forces and supporters of former President Mohamed Morsi.
Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was ousted in July 2013 in a military coup led by Sisi, the then army commander.
Sisi is accused of leading a crackdown on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, as hundreds of them have been killed in clashes with Egyptian security forces following the overthrow of Morsi.
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