Protest against Emergency Law at Parliament

The National Committee defending prisoners of opinion is staging a protest today in front of the Egyptian People’s Assembly to protest extending the emergency law in Egypt.

Today’s protest will be attended by many political and public figures, members of opposition groups, in addition to a number of Parliament members including the Muslim Brotherhood Parliamentary bloc.

 Hussein Ibrahim, deputy chief of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) Parliamentary bloc, commented on today’s protest saying that the Egyptian society has to declare his opinion freely. He added that such protest is to declare people’s refusal to the emergency law which brought disasters to the Egyptian society.

Protests are a peaceful way to declare people’s opinions towards governmental decisions, he said,  and are certainly a means of pressure on the Egyptian government, necessary to change the current status of Egypt.

Hussein Ibrahim condemned the emergency law saying that the Egyptian society have been living under such law for nearly 27 years, a thing which created what can be called “The culture of emergency”.

“The culture of emergency has affected the police and security institutions inside Egypt whose mission was to defend the Egyptian citizens,” Ibrahim said. “However, because of their belief in such culture, the Egyptian society has witnessed daily human rights violations committed by police and security officials.”

He mentioned the fourth annual report of the National Council for Human Rights which described the police stations and departments as places for torture, where the police officers torture Egyptian citizens and treat them violently because of the of emergency law.

Adding that he called for holding sessions inside the Parliament particularly concerning the emergency law and its negative effects on the Egyptian society, even according to statements of the National Council for Human Rights which is a national institution and not derived to any opposition trend.

Ibrahim believed that Egypt does not need new laws concerning Terrorism, adding that there was a moderation in emergency law a few years ago, to be declared as Terrorism law, a new law which has more than 5 articles refused by all Human Rights organizations inside and outside Egypt.

“We do not need any amendment to the emergency law. It has been discussed and amended more than once though Egypt is not in need of it. The current emergency law does not even need to be extended in Egypt. We’ve experienced it during the last 27 years, and know it did not have any positive effects.”