In the midst of a coronavirus epidemic, the Egyptian president expands his powers

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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi has ratified several amendments to the law on the state of emergency already in force since 2017. A decision taken officially to fight against the Covid-19, but which allows it to extend a little further plus his powers.

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NGOs fear that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi will take advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to further expand his powers. Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday denounced the amendments, which were approved by parliament in late April. For Ahmed Benchemsi, director of communications for the NGO in the Middle East and North Africa, this is only a "  cover  " to put in place "  new repressive powers  ". "  The law which has been in force since 2017 gives the government, the security forces, the power to arrest people indefinitely, to interrogate suspects with practically no oversight of the justice system," he denounces.This same law authorizes mass surveillance, censorship, seizure of property. And all this without any supervision of the justice. "

The amendments, published in the official journal Thursday evening, allow the president to order the closure of schools, the suspension of public services, the ban on public and private gatherings and the placing in quarantine of travelers entering the country. They also allow the president to limit the trade of certain products, to requisition private medical centers and to transform schools, educational centers and other public establishments into field hospitals. The military prosecutor will also be allowed to assist the prosecution in investigating crimes reported by the armed forces responsible for law enforcement under the state of emergency.

One way to increase the level of "repression"

The country is under a renewed state of emergency since an attack claimed by a jihadist group affiliated to the Islamic State organization in April 2017.

“  What happened,” continues the HRW representative, “ is that all of this was already in place before the pandemic, before the Covid-19. But on April 22, the Egyptian Parliament amended this law by still proposing new possibilities of control without judicial follow-up. For example, now, President Sissi can decide to close all schools, all courts even, to ban all public gatherings, all demonstrations which are already prohibited elsewhere, all festivities, including private gatherings and even if it has nothing to do with health. So to summarize, they are using the Covid-19 pandemic to further increase the already high level of repression of the Egyptian people. "

Egypt officially registered nearly 8,000 infections and 482 deaths.

►Also read: Concern over the fate of Rami Shaath, activist imprisoned in Egypt

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• Egypt
• Abdel Fattah al-Sissi
• Coronavirus
• Human rights

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