Egyptians Fear the Return of Repression

CAIRO, Egypt — Protesters poured through deadlocked traffic on downtown Cairo’s Qasr Al-Ainy Street on Tuesday evening, demonstrating against a new constitutional article that allows military courts to try civlians. Policemen, one of whom was smiling, sprinted after them, beating and arresting those they could catch. After being detained inside the parliament’s Shura Council, protesters reported that they were dragged, beaten and sexually harassed by security forces. It’s a story Egypt has heard before.

Egypt’s military-backed government — an unelected body that has led the country since the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi earlier this year — issued a law on Sunday that makes it illegal for more than 10 people to gather in a public place unless a police station approves the meeting three days prior. The law, slammed by many as repressive and ironic, has fueled an already growing opposition to Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, commander in chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces.

Many political activists and critics fear the law — and the interim government that passed it — will bring back repression reminiscent of former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule, or worse.

“The new protest law is basically being used to kill off the revolution,” tweeted prominent Egyptian activist Gigi Ibrahim. “We must keep protesting and protect our right to demonstrate. People died for this right.”

The law imposes prison sentences and steep fines on those who don’t get permission for their demonstrations — like Tuesday afternoon’s protest outside the Shura Council and a morning protest commemorating 16-year-old Gaber Salah, nicknamed Jika, who was shot in the chest and head during clashes last year.

Anyone accused of violence at a protest can be slapped with a $44,000 fine — a sum of money that many Egyptians won’t make in decades of work. Deadly attacks on security forces and police across Egypt have only helped fuel the government’s crackdown on both Muslim Brotherhood supporters and non-Islamist opposition groups critical of the interim government — all in the name of security.

Sisi proclaimed that the adoption of the protest law, and other government moves, will “correct the democratic path and establish a regime that pleases all Egyptians,” the Associated Press reported.

Read more at The Huffington Post