In the wake of the terror attack that killed more than 30 soldiers last week in the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has reportedly enacted new laws that have authorized the military to protect state facilities.
The new decree allows state infrastructure like, power plants, main roads and bridges, to be defined as "military facilities" for two years and permits the army to work with the police to secure such facilities. It will also give the military the right to try civilians who it suspects of launching attacks on these sites, reported the BBC.
Activists claimed that the law is too broadly defined and can also include universities, where the police have been unable to quell student protests.
Human rights groups said that the new decree showed that the room for dissent in Egypt is shrinking even further.
However, Presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef insisted that the law is aimed at tackling the threat posed by terrorism and not protesters. He added that it is a "limited, proportional" response to terror attacks by jihadists.
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Putting an end to military trials was one of the prime aims of the 2011 uprising in Egypt that ousted the former President Hosni Mubarak.