Granting the army the right to arrest civilians ... Sisi codifies the state's "militarization" of emergencies

Mahmoud Refaat - Cairo

Observers and human rights activists warned against the repercussions of the approval of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to pass amendments to the emergency law, which included giving the army the right to arrest civilians, amid fears of legalizing the "militarization" of the state and expanding the powers of the president.

This comes after the official newspaper published last Thursday the new amendments to the emergency law, after its approval in Parliament in late April last, as part of the measures to combat the outbreak of the Corona epidemic.

As of Saturday evening, the number of confirmed cases of Corona virus in Egypt - according to official statistics - reached 9000, while the total deaths reached 514 people, out of a population exceeding 100 million.

Since the early 1980s, Egypt has been under a state of emergency, with the exception of short breaks between 2012 and 2017, which are renewed since April 2017, in response to two attacks that targeted two churches in northern Egypt, which were adopted by ISIS.

The emergency law gives exceptional powers to monitor the media and communications, confiscate property, prosecute suspects in exceptional trials, and impose curfews.

Extended powers
The new amendments to the emergency law allowed "security forces or the armed forces to assume the orders of the President of the Republic or his representative. If the armed forces assume this implementation, their officers and non-commissioned officers shall have the powers of judicial arrest officers," while the military prosecution is competent to investigate facts and crimes that It is set by the armed forces during the emergency period.

In contrast to the emergency amendments, Egypt has witnessed in recent years an unprecedented increase in cases of "judicial seizure" of administrative officials in the country, including endowment inspectors and imams, water and electricity bills collectors, and union officials.

In April 2017, the Official Gazette also published a ministerial decision granting a number of officers working in the army the powers of judicial arrest officers on public roads, most of which are controlled by the Egyptian army and its investment companies.

In the summer of 2012, an Egyptian court suspended, prior to the election of the late President Mohamed Morsi, a decision that continued for days granting the power of "judicial seizure" to military intelligence officers and the military police, which would give them the right to arrest civilians.

The new amendments gave the Egyptian president the right to take measures to contain the Corona virus, such as suspending studies in schools and universities and isolating people returning from abroad.

It also includes expanded powers to ban public and private meetings, protests, celebrations and other forms of assembly.

It also allowed the president to limit trade in some products, lay hands on private medical centers, and convert schools, educational centers, and other public facilities into field hospitals.

Besides, the president will have the authority to delay taxes, pay utility bills, and control the prices of some goods and services.

The militarization of the state,
warning against legalizing the new amendments to the emergency law, said Egyptian journalist and journalist Qutb Al-Arabi, "It aims to impose more militarization on Egyptian society."

In statements to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Arabi explained that the Egyptian regime is no longer satisfied with being the top management of the military, but it is constantly seeking to dye all aspects of life with a military character, and to impose the military's dominance over society as a whole, in application of a firm conviction in the minds of the generals that Egypt found them to govern them not For civilians to rule.

"Now the Corona pandemic is being used to pass these and other amendments on the overwhelming Egyptians' preoccupation with the epidemic and its danger to them," he added.

Al-Arabi called on political forces - whether at home or abroad - to confront this new wave of militarization that will turn Egyptian society into a major camp.

He also warned that the amendments "will give any officer or non-commissioned officer to take an ordinary citizen to the Military Prosecution for the most trivial reasons."

The military authority is brutal
in turn, and human rights researcher Ahmed Al-Attar indicated that many countries of the world have canceled military trials, because they are the exception, not the rule.

Al-Attar said in statements to Al-Jazeera Net that "the military courts in Egypt were created specifically to try the military, but the successive authorities expanded their use to reach civilians for more repression, especially during periods of application of the emergency law."

Since Sisi issued the terrorism law in late 2014, according to al-Attar, the authorities have increased the brutality and widespread use of them to impose more de facto policy and intimidate opponents, and have even become the non-politicized Egyptian citizen in the targeting of military trials.

He referred to the trial of more than 15,000 civilians before the military judiciary, known for its cruelty, inappropriateness and appropriateness to natural trials, which led to the issuance of hundreds of death sentences, dozens of which were carried out in a human rights disaster that met with international and human rights convictions.

Al-Attar warned against imposing more exceptional measures - such as the judicial seizure - that led to the dedication and transgression of military life on civilians, considering that these amendments are unjustified, especially in light of the presence of unconstitutional articles of the Egyptian civil law as well.

International condemnation
Human Rights Watch condemned Sisi’s endorsement of “expanding his powers within the emergency law, as part of the measures to combat the Corona epidemic,” describing these amendments as a “pretext” to create “new repressive powers.”

And the organization mentioned in a statement last Thursday that the amendments would allow Sisi - even in the absence of any public health purpose - to restrict public meetings, processions, demonstrations, celebrations and other forms of gatherings, and private meetings may be restricted.

She warned that the amendments could also extend the jurisdiction of military courts to include the trial of civilians, by granting the military prosecutor the power to investigate incidents in which army officers are assigned law enforcement, or when the president orders it.

She said, "Resorting to the letter of preserving security and public order as an excuse reflects the security mentality that governs Egypt during the era of Sisi."

Legislative battalion, considering
his country in a state of war, Parliament spokesman Salah Hasabullah said in a meeting in Parliament about the emergency amendments, "There is no voice that rises above the voice of the battle when we are soldiers, and a Legislative battalion in the nation's army is like the white army that plays its role."

According to God, in statements reported by a local media about a parliament meeting, he considered that "the system has purified the bad reputation of the emergency law, which was used poorly in previous times ... while the emergency is now used only to protect the homeland and its security."