Egypt Rights Groups Challenge Army Arrest Powers

Seventeen Egyptian human rights organizations said on Thursday they are challenging a justice ministry order granting army personnel the right to arrest civilians, saying it had "no basis in law."

"The decision creates extraordinary powers that have no basis in law," the groups said, describing the order as "a blatant circumvention of the official end of the state of emergency."

"The decision could put in place far worse restrictions than those of the state of emergency," the statement said.

Egypt's justice ministry on Wednesday announced a decision granting army personnel, including military intelligence and military police, the right to detain civilians.

The decision came shortly after the lifting of Egypt's decades-old state of emergency last month, and prompted immediate criticism from activists.

The statement, signed by groups including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, said the organizations had called on the administrative court at the State Council to annul the law and prevent its implementation, which was due to begin from Thursday.

The army took the job of policing during the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last year, when police largely disappeared from the streets following days of deadly clashes with protesters.

But their right to arrest civilians ended on May 31 when the controversial state of emergency was lifted.

"The decision fills a legal vacuum, as the army is still on the streets even after the state of emergency was lifted," Adel al-Mursi, the head of military justice, told reporters on Wednesday.

The measure was announced just days before a presidential election runoff between ex-premier Ahmed Shafiq and Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi.

And it was to be implemented on the same day that Egypt's constitutional court handed down two controversial rulings, one allowing Shafiq's candidacy to proceed and the other ruling the Islamist-led parliament unconstitutional.