Egypt’s Leader Ends State of Emergency, Says It’s No Longer Needed

CAIRO – Egypt’s authoritarian president announced Monday that he had lifted a four-year-old state of emergency, undoing powers that had given the government far-reaching powers to quell protests, arrest dissidents and take control of everyday life in the most populous Arab country.

The proclamation of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi amid global criticism of Egypt’s human rights violations theoretically ends a decree that has been renewed every three months since 2017. However, critics have called it a superficial change that the repressive system it has prevailed in Egypt for most of the past 40 years.

In a statement posted on his social media accounts on Monday evening, el-Sisi said he would not extend the state of emergency, which technically expired on Saturday, because the country had finally achieved enough “security and stability” to do without it .

“Egypt has become an oasis of security and stability in the region thanks to its great people and loyal men,” he said in the statement. “So for the first time in years I decided not to extend the state of emergency nationwide.”

Except for a few months of respite in the years following the 2011 revolution when another authoritarian leader, Hosni Mubarak, resigned amid mass protests, Egypt has been in a state of emergency since the assassination of Mr Mubarak’s predecessor Anwar Sadat in 1981, always in the name of upholding of order and security.

During this period, the state of emergency was the government’s most comprehensive tool for suppressing dissent, leading critics to accuse the government of using the terrorist threat to deflect attention from its human rights abuses.

While lawyers cautiously welcomed the announcement, they warned that ending the state of emergency would not stop repression in Egypt, where thousands of dissidents are imprisoned, the press and social media are tightly controlled by the state, and are public criticism and protests anything but absent.

Even without a state of emergency, few expect the government to change the way it does business.

“I see this as a purely cosmetic move: Sisi already has all the repressive powers he needs outside of the Emergency Act,” said Amy Hawthorne, research director for the Project on Middle East Democracy, a Washington-based advocacy group, on tweeted.

She added in a separate message: “The release of political prisoners and the termination of the trials of those currently being prosecuted by the State Security Emergency Courts would make much more sense.”

Despite all the skepticism, the lawyers hoped that the move signals a further easing of the impending restrictions.

“Everyone will be watching,” said Ragia al-Omran, a lawyer. “All eyes are on Egypt.”

In 2013, when Mr. el-Sisi was Army General and Defense Minister, he led the overthrow of Egypt’s only freely elected President, Mohamed Morsi. The government arrested Mr. Morsi and many of his allies, and Mr. el-Sisi became president in 2014.

Mr el-Sisi declared the current state of emergency in April 2017 after 47 people were killed in two bomb attacks on churches in the Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Tanta on Palm Sunday in order to defend tough security measures.

In a state of emergency, Egyptian security services could arrest people indefinitely, interrogate suspects, monitor communications and spy on ordinary citizens. The army was empowered to intervene if necessary to enforce security. The government could monitor media companies and censor their content before it is published, evict residents and confiscate property, all with or without judicial oversight.

Hossam Bahgat, the executive director of the Egyptian Personal Rights Initiative, a prominent advocacy group, stated that the decision would not affect political prisoners currently behind bars, nor those currently in emergency courts, which the government routinely persecutes , dissidents are on trial.

But, he said, it would prevent authorities from trying new cases in such courts run by judges elected by the president and deter defendants from appealing.

“It is a limited but welcome step in the right direction,” said Mr. Bahgat.

While Mr. el-Sisi did not elaborate on his reasons for lifting the state of emergency, he did so less than two months after the Biden government declared that Egypt was spending $ 130 million of the $ 1.3 billion in it annual American aid received would not be received unless it ensured human rights reforms. These conditions have not been published.

The concessions he has made in recent weeks – including ending the state of emergency and closing legal proceedings against a handful of civil society and interest groups – do little to diminish Mr el-Sisi’s control over the country’s politics.

The Egyptian constitution requires that every state of emergency be reviewed every three months. The last three-month period expired last week, but Mr el-Sisi’s announcement on Monday was the first official word that it will not be extended.

Nada Rashwan contributed to the coverage.