The controversial law enacted by Egyptian interim President Adly Mansour Sunday to impose restrictions on organizers of protests and demonstrations have triggered heated debate among politicians and experts.
Under the new law, organizers of public meetings are to offer a written notice to the Interior Ministry three days ahead, and the ministry has the right to cancel a protest 24 hours before it starts if it feels that the protest may represent a threat to security.
The interim government enacted the new law as university students in several governorates have been staging protests to mark 100 days since the dispersal of two Cairo protest camps demanding the reinstatement of President Muhammad Mursi, who was overthrown in July amid nationwide protests. Pro-government parties lauded the law as helpful to stop the spreading of violence in the Egyptian streets. Presidential spokesman Ihab Badwy said that the aim of the law is to protect peaceful protesters. Mohamed Hamed El-Gamal, a judge and former head of the country’s State Council, echoed him by saying the law is “to protect peaceful demonstrations while facing violent ones.” He said the law is good and doesn’t differ from similar laws in other countries. El-Gamal also noted that this law alone could not eliminate violence and instability, urging the interim government to be tough on the Muslim Brotherhood. “The new law will not be enough to stop violence if the interim government continued with its soft stance at the Brotherhood,” El-Gamal said.
Opponents, however, said the law could help little in stopping protests and violence. “The new law will not prevent people from coming to streets again,” Mohamed Ibrahim, member of the higher Committee of Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of Muslim Brotherhood, told local news website Alyoum 7.
Ibrahim said that such laws should be issued by elected parliament and not by the interim government, adding such laws need a lot of debate and consultations with human rights organizations.
He pointed out that even the curfew and emergency state didn’t prevent Brotherhood supporters from coming to the street, so he doesn’t expect any change with the issuing of the new law.
Essam El-Sherif, coordinator of Free Front for Peaceful Change, said the new law is a tool of oppressing protesters. Egypt was in need of a law that helps to protect peaceful protests and preserve human rights, and at the same time gives security the proper tool to face violence, said Tarek Zaghlol, Executive Director of the Egyptian Organization for Human rights. “Protesters now also have responsibility to secure their protests against intruders who may resort to violence and expose them to danger,” Zaghlol told Xinhua.
He said that nothing will prevent Egyptians from coming to the street again if they felt that the government is using the law to violate their rights of peaceful protest.
- Xinhua News Agency
