- EGYPTFJP News
- November 26, 2013
- 4 minutes read
Freedom and Justice Party Rejects Coup Commanders’ Anti-Protest Law
The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) announced rejection of the reprehensible anti-protest law issued Sunday by the military-installed regime, because it is so issued by an illegitimate authority that has no right to pass laws, stressing that such laws must indeed be issued through parliament, after a thorough community discussion.
In a statement, the FJP said the new law is intended to restrict the right to demonstrate granted by the Constitution and all international human rights protocols, and further curtails the freedom of expression, especially in the absence of any alternative means of expression in the country, and particularly after the coup trampled electoral and constitutional legitimacy and the freedom to express opinions through elections or through the media.
The FJP stressed that coup authorities do not listen to the views and aspirations of the people, despite the fact that peaceful protest is a means by which the peoples of the free world express their opinions in their respective countries.
The FJP pointed that the articles of the law aim to entrench and increase the area of abuse of citizens. Coup authorities claim they gained legitimacy through demonstrations in which the people protested on the streets, and yet they now deprive all opponents of that right.
The FJP said that the law, signed yesterday by coup authorities, is radically different from the bill discussed in Shura Council (Upper House) under the legitimate President Mohamed Morsi. That law was not issued at the time, because it was deemed to need further community discussion.
The Morsi-era protest law was to allow demonstration organizers to only optionally notify authorities of their plans, and was intended to protect protesters from opponents’ attacks, not to oppress and quell them, as is the case in the new law.
The Morsi-era law required security authorities, rather than demonstrators, to resort to the courts – if they object to a demonstration. That law did not restrict the constitutional right to protest peacefully, and did not include any of the unjust sanctions brought about by the new law to deter anyone who even thinks of resorting to protest as a means for civilized and peaceful expression of opinion.
The FJP called on all those who objected to the earlier law, which was not enacted then, to raise their voices in protest at the unjust law now issued to undermine what was achieved by the glorious January 25 Revolution, which the coup came to pounce upon and trample.
The FJP further stressed that such laws will not only increase people’s determination to get their rights and freedom, but will also serve to shorten the life of the coup and fast-track the return to legitimacy without delay.
