CAIRO: Experts denounced the extension of the emergency law, deeming it a violation of human rights in a symposium held at the Cairo Institute For Human Rights Studies last Sunday.
“The emergency law is a violation for the rights and freedoms and its extension is a tool in the hands of the authorities to force Egyptians to accept the militarily rule,” said Khalid Ali, head of the Egyptian Center of Economic and Social Rights.
“The rule of law and democratic elections are the main and only way to save the nation’s security not the emergency law,” he said.
Ali denounced the referral of more than 12,000 citizens to militarily courts under the emergency law, saying it is a stark violation of human rights.
Mohamed Gadallah, vice president of the Egyptian State Council, said that the emergency law should have come to an end on Sept. 30 as per the constituiopnal declaration announced on March 30 which stipulated the law’s extension only for six more months.
“The emergency shouldn’t be extended without a public referendum,” he said, ”We at least need three years to evaluate the January 25 Revolution and its effect because corruption still persists.”
He explained that the conflict and divisions between the political powers are currently one of the main challenges to the revolution.
“Emergency law has no place in post-revolution Egypt because it is one of the main reasons behind the revolution in the first place,” said Raafat Fouda, professor of law at Cairo University.
”It is not logical to enforce the emergency law on Egyptians because some protests took place in front of the Israeli embassy one day,” he said.
Mohamed Nour Farahat, an expert on the constitution, said, ”All the terrorist attacks in Egypt’s modern history have been executed under the so-called ‘emergency law’ and it didn’t prevent them.”
“The problem of this law is that it creates corrupt policemen who abuse it,” he said, “For example, a policeman might not tell a person under arrest that they have the right not to answer any questions, according to the criminal procedure law.“
While attendees agreed that the emergency law should no longer be implemented, they were divided as to whether its end should be attributed to the constitutional declaration or the January 25 Revolution.
