Press Trust of India
Cairo, August 17: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has approved a controversial new anti-terrorism law that sets up special courts, offers protection to security forces from legal consequences and proposes fine on reporters for contradicting the authorities on terror attacks. President Sisi last evening signed into law an anti-terrorism legislation, details of which were published in the official gazette. The controversial law sets up special courts and shields those enforcing it.
They also impose the death penalty for anyone found guilty of setting up or leading a terrorist group. The stringent law also sets a minimum fine of 200,000 pounds (about $25,000) and a maximum of 500,000 pounds for contradicting the authorities’ version on terror attacks and publishing or spreading “false” reports in this regard.
The government had initially proposed a jail sentence for offenders, but backed down after a backlash from local media. Sisi, who toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, had promised a tougher legal system in July, after a car bomb attack that killed the top public prosecutor, the highest level state official to be killed in years.