White House expresses disappointment in Egypt’s decision to extend emergency law

WH disappointed by Egypt’s state of emergency

WASHINGTON — The White House is expressing disappointment in Egypt’s decision to extend a controversial emergency law for two years and is calling for it to be replaced with a promised counterterrorism measure that would protect Egyptian civil liberties.

In place since 1981, the law gives the Egyptian police broad powers to arrest people and to hold them indefinitely without charge. Egypt has said it would only use the law in counterterrorism and counternarcotics cases, but human rights activists have warned that the law will continue to be used to suppress dissent.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that even the revised law gives the Egyptian government extraordinary powers to restrict the rights of its citizens.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also criticized the extension of a “state of emergency” in Egypt. A statement issued in Clinton’s name said the extension ignored “a broad range of Egyptian voices” seeking an end to the emergency. Critics of the declaration charge that it’s used by the government to suppress dissent.

Clinton welcomed a suggestion in the Egyptian statement that the government would work to enact counterterror legislation to allow lifting of the state of emergency.

That “would be a step forward if it means greater protection of civil liberties for Egyptian citizens in practice,” she said.