Egypt's new counterterrorism law muzzles peaceful activists

A new draft law in Egypt expands the authorities’ iron grip on power and “strikes at the very heart of basic freedoms and human rights principles and must be scrapped immediately or fundamentally revised,” Amnesty International said in a press release yesterday.

In a flagrant attack on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, the law further widens the use of the death penalty while weakening safeguards in place to ensure fair trials. If approved, the law could be signed off by the president and ratified within days.

Thousands of people, including peaceful protestors, human rights activists and journalists are already languishing in Egypt’s prisons facing charges that include “disturbing public order and social peace” and “impeding the application of the laws”.

By expanding the definition of a “terrorist act” using broad factors such as “disturbing public order and social peace”, “harming national unity and national economy”, and “impeding the application of the provisions of the constitution and national laws”, the law criminalises the legitimate exercise of human rights, including freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

It also establishes special terrorism courts to rule on “terrorist” offences and adds new offences to the list of those punishable by death.

“Hundreds of Egyptians have already been sentenced to death in Egypt after grossly unfair trials,” said Said Boumedouha, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. “Instead of finding a way to expand the application of the death penalty, the authorities should be taking steps to end its use.”

Instilling fear and a state of emergency

In the absence of an Egyptian parliament, the law will render authority granted to the president near absolute. In addition, it allows authorities to take extreme measures, usually only invoked during a state of emergency – disregarding stringent conditions required for such measures in international law and standards.

“One of the key reasons the Egyptian people took to the streets in 2011 was to abolish the 30-year-long state of emergency imposed by Hosni Mubarak. Granting the current president similar absolute powers is a deadly blow to human rights in Egypt,” Boumedouha explained.

The draft counterterrorism law was introduced by the State Council shortly after the killing of the Public Prosecutor on 29 June and the wave of deadly attacks against the security forces in the North Sinai Peninsula which killed at least 17 members of the security forces.

“The counterterrorism law is a clear knee-jerk reaction to consolidate the authorities’ iron grip on power in order to counter recent security threats. While the Egyptian authorities have an obligation to maintain security, they should not trample all over human rights in the process,” Boumedouha said.