CAIRO: One of the leading presidential candidates in Egypt, Ayman Nour, has said he supports the reactivation of all aspects of the country's Emergency Law following the attack on the Israeli Embassy on Friday that left five dead and over 1,000 injured. “Under the current circumstances in Egypt, we have no other option but to agree to this decision only in a definite period of time until the role of the police is reactivated,” said Nour, who for the past five years has been one of the leading proponents of ending the draconian Emergency Laws in the country. Nour, a presidential candidate and head of the liberal al-Ghad Party, told reporters that Friday's events were caused by “imbalance and the faults of the security.” As a result of the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Egypt on Friday evening and into Saturday, Egypt's Minister of Information Osama Heikal said that the country would reactivate all Emergency Law articles. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had announced last week that it would end the Emergency Law ahead of scheduled November parliamentary elections, but the attack on the embassy has reversed the decision. According to sources close to the military junta, elections could also be postponed and a curfew may be imposed if the demonstrations around the embassy do not subside soon. Heikal also added that Egypt would abide by all international treaties and maintain protection of its embassies in the country. Heikal also claimed that political powers and the media will have to face losing their “security” in Egypt. The Egyptian Cabinet and the ruling military council today held an emergency meeting in the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense. The government also said on Saturday that those arrested on Friday and Saturday would be tried in emergency state security courts for “inciting violence.” Egypt will “take legal measures to transfer those in custody and those who are found to be involved in inciting or participatig in (Friday's) events to the emergency state security court,” the minister said after a meeting of a ministerial crisis group and talks with Egypt's military ruler. One of the guiding principles of the January uprising that saw millions of Egyptians take to the street in ousting the government of President Hosni Mubarak was the end of the Emergency Laws. BM
