CAIRO
Egypt's controversial protest law will be amended "very soon", an Egyptian official said Monday.
"The transitional justice ministry is working to amend the law in a way that fits demands of the Egyptian street," ministry spokesman Mahmoud Fawzi told Anadolu Agency.
Asked about the date of amending the law, Fawzi said that it will be "very soon".
The protest legislation, issued by former military-backed interim president Adly Mansour, stipulates that protest organizers submit written notification to the Interior Ministry three days before staging a demonstration.
The law gives the Interior Ministry the right to deny organizers permission if the planned demonstration is deemed a "threat to security or public safety" or if security conditions are found to be "inappropriate."
The law also authorizes security forces to use force to disperse demonstrators.
According to the law, violators can either be fined or imprisoned – penalties that have provoked the ire of many Egyptian politicians and activists, who say the legislation curbs freedoms and gives police free rein to bar popular protest.
On Saturday, seven Egyptian political parties called for a symbolic one-day hunger strike in solidarity with dozens of detained Egyptian activists who recently began an open-ended hunger strike to protest their ongoing detention.
A recent report by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, a local NGO, found over 41,000 cases of Egyptians who had been subject to prosecution since last year's ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi by the army.
Egyptian authorities continue to deny that any political detainees are being prosecuted, insisting that all those currently held face criminal charges.
By Hussein Qabani
www.aa.com.tr/en
