Egypt's emergency state to last until June 2012
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Xinhua, September 22, 2011
Head of the Egyptian military justice authority Adel al-Morsy said Wednesday the state of emergency in Egypt will last until June 30, 2012, but he also indicated the law might be cancelled or amended.
The report was contradictory to another one posted on a link to the Facebook page of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The website report said the law was designed to end on May 31, 2012.
There have contradictory reports about the span of the law, as the then-People's Assembly in 2010 approved an extension of the law for two years beginning on June 1, 2010, which should mean the end should be on May 31, 2012 if the extension was exactly two years. Other reports said the law should end on June 30 next year, citing a decree about the extension of the law.
Morsy also said laws prior to the constitutional declaration in March can be cancelled or amended. Egypt's official news agency MENA quoting an official said in a separate report that the military was seeking to end the emergency state in Egypt soon.
Egypt's emergency law has been in force since 1981 following the assassination of then-president Anwar Sadat. To put an end to the law was one of the basic demands of protestors who forced Hosni Mubarak to resign from his presidency on Feb. 11.
There seemed to be lax implementation of the law after the downfall of Mubarak. The military had also said it would end the law before the parliamentary elections later this year.
But after the storming of the Israeli embassy building on Sept. 9, the military decided to reactivate the applications of the law, which sparked new protests recently.
