Morsy-era Justice Minister Ahmed Mekky said that there are substantial differences between the draft law on protesting that he proposed in the era of deposed President Mohamed Morsy, and the law passed by the ‘military coup.’
“Under President Morsy, it was only possible to disperse any demonstration or sit-in by three ways that do not include live bullets,” Mekky told Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr, “and it was required that the Interior [Ministry] only start to disperse [a protest] after assigning a judge to determine If the demonstrators had committed a violation or not.”
“In the era of President Mohammed Morsy, Mohamed Ibrahim, the current interior minister, refused to settle for using fake shots and birdshots to warn demonstrators.” Mekky also noted that the Morsy-era bill acknowledged the right of citizens to protest peacefully.
He stressed that the people have the right to express their opinion by demonstrating, and this is the only means now available to hear the voices of the protesters.
During Morsy’s term, he continues, the aim was to maintain the peacefulness of the demonstrations through the bill, not to prevent demonstrations altogether like the current law.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
