Egypt's Sisi issues anti-terrorism decree

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi signed off an anti-terrorism law on Tuesday, as the country is facing escalating terrorist attacks.

The law, as announced in the official Gazette, defined the "terrorist entity" as any association, group or organization which threats national security, disrupts public transportation, assaults personal freedom of citizens, or harms the social peace and national unity.

Under the law, public prosecutors could ask a criminal court to list suspects as terrorists and start a trial. It also stipulates that any group designated as terrorist will be dissolved and its assets frozen.

Egypt has been engulfed in a growing wave of anti-security terrorist attacks in the Sinai Peninsula and other parts across the country after former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013.

The Al-Qaida-inspired Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which is based in Sinai and has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.

In December 2013, the Egyptian government blacklisted the Muslim Brotherhood, the power base of ousted Morsi, as a terrorist organization, following a number of deadly attacks across the country that were allegedly carried out by the group, though it has always denied.

On Monday, the Ministry of Social Solidarity ordered the dissolution of 169 non-governmental organizations that are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the seizure of all the group's assets.

The militant Islamists deem the attacks against the security personnel as retaliation against the authorities' crackdown on Morsi's supporters, in which hundreds of them have died and thousands more arrested and tried.

Human rights organizations say that the law may target mainly Islamists, as it will widen the powers of the security forces over the protesters whose demonstrations are mostly accompanied by riots. Endit