Sisi taken to court to repeal ‘historic’ Assembly Law

A legal case has been filed in Egypt calling on President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to revoke the controversial Assembly Law.

The law, which Al-Sisi has used in his crackdown on opposition groups using it to jail thousands and issue death sentences against hundreds of others, dates back to 1914 and essentially criminalises the gathering of five or more people and institutes collective punishment,.

The NGO, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, today released a 95-page report to educate the public on the Assembly Law. The report said the law was initially raised at the behest of British occupation authorities to stop Egyptians protesting against their rule in the lead up to World War I.

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The law justifies force used by security forces against demonstrators that has led to thousands of deaths over the years in increased crackdowns in what they believe is a necessary response to fatal attacks on police and soldiers and a way of preserving stability in the Arab state.However what the NGO revealed that parliament in 1928 passed a bill to repeal the Assembly Law however King Fuad I objected to it and prevented it being published, leaving its legal status unclear.Subsequent republican governments thereafter continued to apply the Assembly Law at various stages including President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who overthrew the monarchy, and made the Law stricter in 1968 following student demonstrations.

However, according to researchers, the fact that the 1928 repeal bill went unpublished, detracting from its legal status, meaning that its use thereafter was illegal.

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“It’s time President Sisi takes the initiative to immediately renounce this historic and legal indignity by abolishing the British colonial administration law, originally designed to suppress Egyptian resistance to occupation,” Bahey eldin Hassan, director of the NGO said.“Every citizen deprived of their freedom under this unjust, obsolete law must be immediately released, with apologies and reparations for their families.”The Justice Ministry declined to comment on the legal case but one official, speaking on condition of anonymity to AFP, said they were unlikely to comment because the matter lies with the courts.

It is unlikely the law will actually be repealed and in the case it was repealed, it is feared that parliament will pass similar legislation enabling the same type of powers.

Around 40,000 people have been detained for political reasons since 2013, according to human rights groups in which the Assembly Law, along with a protest law issued in 2013, has played a major part.As a result, individuals can be slapped with a six-month prison sentence for any gathering of five or more people as long as it is deemed a threat to public peace, according to authorities.

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If a crime is committed in that gathering, everyone in the group becomes automatically liable. CIHRS published its report two years later than intended due to the increase in pressure on civil society workers, including travel bans and asset freezes.