Egypt’s decades-long state of emergency expired on Thursday, marking the first time in more than 30 years that the law has not been renewed.
The ruling military Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has stated that they will continue to “protect” the country “taking into account that the state of emergency has ended”, until power is officially handed over to the winner of the presidential elections in late June.
The country has been in a constant state of emergency since 1981, with the law last being renewed in 2010 when ousted President Hosni Mubarak was still in power, before pro-democracy protest led to him being overthrown. The law gave authorities a range of powers, including the right to detain people without charge and try them in emergency security courts.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner tentatively welcomed the move stating,
The ruling military Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has stated that they will continue to “protect” the country “taking into account that the state of emergency has ended”, until power is officially handed over to the winner of the presidential elections in late June.
The country has been in a constant state of emergency since 1981, with the law last being renewed in 2010 when ousted President Hosni Mubarak was still in power, before pro-democracy protest led to him being overthrown. The law gave authorities a range of powers, including the right to detain people without charge and try them in emergency security courts.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner tentatively welcomed the move stating,
"Certainly it's something that we've repeatedly encouraged them (SCAF) to do and it's certainly in keeping with the timeline that the SCAF has set out for this democratic transition. So it would be another step in that direction."The scrapping of the laws were also deemed “historic” by Human Rights Watch’s Heba Morayef who said,
"Tomorrow will be the first day in my life emergency law free,"
“It’s a law that symbolized the extraordinary powers given to the police, which created an environment in which forced disappearances and torture happened regularly.”However she went on to add,
"Unfortunately, this will not end most serious abuses that we saw over the last year and a half, because those were committed by the military and legitimised by military courts."She further noted that HRW had confirmed that at least 188 people held under the emergency laws were still being detained.
