Hosni Mubarak, has done it again:
Egypt on Monday extended a controversial decades-old state of emergency by two years despite pledges to replace it by new legislation, in a move slammed by rights groups as anti-constitutional.
“Parliament has accepted during its afternoon session today the decision by the president of the republic to extend the state of emergency for two years starting from June 1, or until a new terror law is drafted, whichever comes first,” the state news agency MENA said.
“It was passed with 305 votes in favor and 103 against,” Issam al-Mokhtar, an MP with the Muslim Brotherhood, told AFP by telephone.
The state of emergency was first imposed in 1981 after the assassination by Islamists of president Anwar Sadat and has been repeatedly renewed since then despite protests from rights groups and regime opponents.
Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif pledged to “only use the law in the fight against terrorism… and to protect the security of the nation and its citizens,” MENA reported.
“The government… has only used the articles of the law strictly for the goals intended, namely the fight against terrorism,” Nazif told parliament.
Last year, Judicial and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mufid Shehab said the state of emergency would end in 2008, even if the new anti-terror law meant to replace it was not ready.
