Egypt's cabinet criminalizes protests in new law

[News_Editor]

Egypt's cabinet criminalizes protests in new law

2011-03-23 23:37:31 GMT+7 (ICT)

CAIRO (BNO NEWS) -- The Egyptian interim cabinet on Wednesday approved a decree-law that criminalizes protests, strikes and sit-ins that disrupt the economy.

The law assigns severe punishment to those who call for or incite sit-ins, with the maximum sentence one year in prison and fines of up to half a million Egyptian pounds (84,000 dollars).

"This law would only be implemented during times of emergency law and those draft laws would be presented to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to issue a decree," Magdy Rady, spokesman for the cabinet, told Ahram Online.

The new law drew instant heated reaction on social media sites like Twitter and has already been blasted by activists.

"I'm against it [the law], this is against human rights; peaceful demonstrations are amongst the basic human rights," Shady Ghozali, a member of the Youth Revolution Coalition, told Ahram Online.

Ghozali emphasized that these views are his own, but he expects the coalition to also oppose the law.

Egypt's military has been in charge of the country since former president Hosni Mubarak's ouster last month. In recent weeks, it has been slammed by rights groups for its use of violence against protesters and torture of detainees.

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