Freedom and Justice Party Expresses Concerns Over Protection of Protest Rights Bill

Faisal El-Sayed, member of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP)’s Legal Committee, emphasized that the draft law on protection of demonstration rights, proposed by the Ministry of Justice, will not be approved by the Shura Council (upper house of Egypt’s parliament) until after a broad-based community consensus is achieved on the bill. He added that the FJP has several observations about the law.

"The Egyptian people and the whole society reject and condemn the tendency of certain groups and movements to resort to murder and sabotage in the name of protest. Indeed, there is a misunderstanding of the right to demonstrate by some youth movements, which turned to violence and Molotov cocktails.

"The FJP will reject any articles in the protest rights bill that could limit the freedom of protesters, muzzle mouths or allow security forces to control rallies and empty protests of their vitality."