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Egypt is poised to adopt a new law aimed at overhauling the judicial process, but human rights groups warn it could entrench long-standing abuses including arbitrary detention, travel bans and expedited trials.The legislation, currently awaiting approval by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is being promoted by the government as a step toward streamlining legal procedures, from arrest to trial.Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has told the UN Human Rights Council it would bring a “legislative revolution to criminal justice” in Egypt.Ihab al-Tamawy, the head of the parliamentary subcommittee charged with drafting the new code, told AFP it “introduces a set of new guarantees” on Egypt’s notorious pretrial detention system, as well as the role of the public prosecution.But critics say the bill risks codifying repressive practices that have long eroded due process in the country.According to rights defenders, the law expands the powers of police and prosecutors and limits the role of defence lawyers, undermining judicial oversight and the right to a fair trial.In one of the new provisions that have come under scrutiny, public prosecutors will be able to order travel bans without a warrant “in cases of emergency”.The law will also allow police to enter homes without an arrest warrant in cases of “distress” or “danger”, which are not clearly defined.In April, UN rights chief Volker Turk “raised concerns” over the law and called on Sisi to “consider carefully” before signing it into force, “to ensure that it fully complies with Egypt’s international human rights obligations”.- Right to fair trial -Egypt currently ranks 135th out of 142 countries on the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index.In the latest UN review of its rights record in January, Egypt faced accusations of “systemic and widespread” rights violations, including torture, enforced disappearances and unfair trials.In recent years, Egypt has been accused of formalising into normal law exceptional measures previously allowed in states of emergency.According to prominent human rights lawyer Khaled Ali, the law “does not truly combat corruption, expands the powers granted to the police and prosecution and undermines the role of defence lawyers,” which he said is “essential to a fair trial”.Along with 15 other independent lawyers, Ali submitted 176 proposed amendments to the law, none of which were adopted.Mahmoud Shalaby, Egypt researcher at Amnesty International, told AFP the bill “codifies practices that were already taking place outside the boundaries of the law, and grants them legitimacy in an attempt to improve Egypt’s image”.According to Karim Ennarah, research director at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the new changes will come at the expense of investigations, defendants and their lawyers.Under the new law, defence lawyers can be denied access to case files and witnesses — “practices already common, but that will now become legal,” Ennarah said.- ‘Recycling’ -The law will also expand remote trials, which Ennarah describes as “rushed” virtual hearings, where dozens of jailed defendants are corralled behind a screen on a video call with a judge.Remote trials “undermine two fundamental principles of a fair trial”, according to Ennarah, namely “the defendant’s right to meet privately with their lawyer, and their right to appear before a judge” to assess any harm or abuse inflicted upon them.Egypt is routinely criticised for the widespread use of pretrial detention, a phenomenon that proponents say is addressed under the new law.While the maximum period for remand detention will be reduced from 24 to 18 months, Amnesty International has warned the law “provides no safeguards against abusive prolonged pretrial detention”.According to Shalaby, many of Egypt’s estimated tens of thousands of political prisoners are victims of a practice known as “recycling” detainees.Under the much-maligned “revolving door policy”, prisoners are often handed new charges instead of being released, restarting the clock on their remand period.Another issue, he says, is that when the law goes into effect, citizens will no longer be able to sue “in case of violations during their arrest or detention”.In 2024, EIPR documented 10 cases of torture-related deaths in detention facilities.Rights groups regularly report cases of medical neglect, abuse and overcrowding in Egyptian prisons.

The ceasefire that ended Iran’s 12-day war with Israel has held for nearly a month without incident, but many Iranians remain uneasy, struggling with uncertainty as fears of another confrontation linger.”I don’t think this ceasefire will last,” said Peyman, a 57-year-old resident of Shiraz in Iran’s south, one of numerous cities hit last month as Israel unleashed an unprecedented bombing campaign against its staunch rival.The Israeli offensive targeted key nuclear facilities and military sites, killing top commanders and nuclear scientists and hundreds of other people, while also wreaking havoc in some residential areas.The attacks triggered the fiercest fighting in history between the longtime foes, ending with a ceasefire announced on June 24.But Israel has signalled it could return to fighting if Iran attempts to rebuild nuclear facilities or carry out any actions deemed a threat, such as moving to develop an atomic bomb — an ambition Tehran has consistently denied it was pursuing.Iran, in turn, has vowed to deliver a harsh response if attacked again.Nuclear diplomacy with the United States — which briefly joined the war with strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites — has stalled, deepening a sense of uncertainty about what lies ahead.”I am scared the war would start again,” said Hamid, a 54-year-old government employee who gave only his first name.”It will lead to the death of more innocent people and the destruction of the country’s infrastructure.”During the war, Israel struck major Iranian cities including the capital Tehran, hitting military sites, government buildings and the state television headquarters.More than 1,000 people were killed in Iran, according to authorities. Retaliatory missile and drone attacks killed 29 people in Israel.- ‘Don’t want to flee again’ -Many residents fled Tehran, seeking refuge in other parts of the country, even though few regions were untouched by the blasts and smoke-covered skies.Nearly a month later, a series of fires that broke out across Iran in recent days — including one at a major oil facility — have triggered speculations which officials were quick to dismiss, denying any acts of sabotage.”This war really frightened me,” said 78-year-old housewife Golandam Babaei, from the western Kermanshah province.She lived through the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, a painful memory for many of her generation.”I kept telling myself, please God, do not let the past repeat itself,” Babaei told AFP.The war with Israel, although much shorter and fought mostly with air strikes and missiles rather than by ground forces, revived grim memories of the conflict with Iraq.That war, triggered by an Iraqi invasion in 1980, killed an estimated 500,000 people on both sides.It featured chemical warfare and prolonged front-line bombardments, scarring Iranians in the then-nascent Islamic republic born out of the 1979 revolution.Since then, for decades, Iran had managed to keep conflicts away from its territory. But now after the 12-day war with Israel, some Iranians feel a profound sense of vulnerability.”I kept thinking I don’t want to flee again, we have nowhere to go. I cannot run to the mountains like the past,” said Babaei.- Uncertain future -For Ali Khanzadi, a 62-year-old war veteran, the conflict with Israel highlighted a change compared to the 1980s when “we didn’t have any advanced military equipment” to fight the Iraqis.Khanzadi, who was wounded in battle in 1983, said that the war with Israel, while much shorter, had a more sinister dimension.Unlike in the past, modern military technology means “they can kill a child in his sleep remotely using a drone,” he said.In the face of the Israeli threats and attacks, Iranian authorities have repeatedly invoked national unity.Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said the offensive was aimed at toppling the Islamic republic’s clerical system, and urged Iranian diplomats and military officials to proceed with “care and precision” as the country cautiously moves on.Tehran has said it remained open to nuclear diplomacy with the United States which the war had derailed, but officials have expressed concerns over renewed attacks and demanded unspecified US guarantees to resume negotiations.Ordinary Iranians appear to share fears that the conflict could erupt again.”I hope that this will not happen,” said Hamid.Babaei said she was praying “for peace, for us to remain safe in our homes”.

Iran has no plans to abandon its nuclear programme including uranium enrichment despite the “severe” damage caused by US strikes to its facilities, the country’s foreign minister said ahead of renewed talks with European powers.Iran is scheduled to meet Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul on Friday, to discuss its nuclear programme, with Tehran accusing European powers of scuppering a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.The meeting will be the first since Iran’s 12-day war with Israel last month, during which the United States carried out strikes against Tehran’s nuclear facilities.For now, enrichment “is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” on Monday.”But obviously we cannot give up enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists,” he continued, calling it a source of “national pride”.US President Donald Trump responded to the comments on his platform Truth Social, saying Washington would carry out strikes again “if necessary”.The 2015 agreement, reached between Iran and UN Security Council permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany, imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.However, it unravelled in 2018 when the United States, during Trump’s first term, unilaterally withdrew and reimposed sweeping sanctions.Though Europe pledged continued support, a mechanism intended to offset US sanctions never effectively materialised, forcing many Western firms to exit Iran and deepening its economic crisis.”Iran holds the European parties responsible for negligence in implementing the agreement,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei ahead of Friday’s talks in Istanbul on the deal’s future.Iran will also host a trilateral meeting Tuesday with Chinese and Russian representatives to discuss the nuclear issue and potential sanctions.The Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing would “continue to play a constructive role in pushing relevant sides to restart dialogue and negotiations, and reach a solution that takes in account the legitimate concerns of all parties”.In recent weeks, the three European powers have threatened to reimpose international sanctions on Tehran, accusing it of breaching its nuclear commitments.Germany said the Istanbul talks would be at the expert level, with the European trio, or E3, working “flat out” to find a sustainable and verifiable diplomatic solution.”If no solution is reached by the end of August… the snapback also remains an option for the E3,” said its foreign ministry spokesman, Martin Giese.A clause in the 2015 agreement allows for UN sanctions on Iran to be reimposed through a “snapback” mechanism in the event of non-compliance.However, the agreement expires in October, leaving a tight deadline.- ‘No intention of speaking with America’ -The International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran is the only non-nuclear-armed country currently enriching uranium to 60 percent — far beyond the 3.67 percent cap set by the 2015 accord.That is a short step from the 90 percent enrichment required for a nuclear weapon.Using the snapback clause was “meaningless, unjustifiable and immoral”, Baqaei told a news conference, arguing that Iran only began distancing itself from the agreement in response to Western non-compliance.”Iran’s reduction of its commitments was carried out in accordance with the provisions outlined in the agreement,” he said.Western powers — led by the United States and backed by Israel — have long accused Tehran of secretly seeking nuclear weapons.Iran has repeatedly denied this, insisting its nuclear programme is solely for civilian purposes such as energy production.Tehran and Washington had held five rounds of nuclear talks starting in April, but a planned meeting on June 15 was cancelled after Israel launched strikes on Iran, triggering a 12-day conflict.”At this stage, we have no intention of speaking with America,” Baqaei said Monday.Israel launched a wave of surprise strikes on its regional nemesis on June 13, targeting key military and nuclear facilities.The United States launched its own strikes against Iran’s nuclear programme on June 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, in Qom province south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.

Syrian authorities evacuated Bedouin families from the Druze-majority city of Sweida on Monday, after a ceasefire in the southern province halted a week of sectarian bloodshed that a monitor said killed more than 1,260 people.The violence, which followed massacres of Alawites in March and clashes involving the Druze in April and May, has shaken the Islamist rule of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has pledged to protect minorities in a country devastated by 14 years of war.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the ceasefire was largely holding despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida city, with no new reports of casualties.An AFP correspondent saw a convoy of buses and other vehicles enter the provincial capital and exit carrying civilians, including women and children.State news agency SANA quoted the governor of neighbouring Daraa, Anwar al-Zubi, as saying his province had “received about 200 Bedouin families who had been detained in Sweida”, sending them to local shelters.The ceasefire announced on Saturday put an end to the sectarian violence that killed more than 1,260 people — about 800 of them Druze fighters and civilians, including nearly 200 noncombatants “summarily executed” by government forces, according to the Observatory. The toll also includes more than 400 government security personnel.Fatima Abdel-Qader, 52, a Bedouin who was leaving the city on foot, said her family had been surrounded during the fighting, “unable to leave or come back — anyone who wanted to go out risked gunfire and clashes”. “We were afraid that someone would come to our home and kill us all,” she told AFP, adding they had no way of getting food or water. Damascus has accused Druze groups of attacking and killing Sunni Bedouins during the clashes, which broke out on July 13 after a Druze vegetable seller was kidnapped by local Bedouins, according to the Observatory.The Observatory’s toll includes 35 Bedouins, three of them civilians executed by Druze fighters.The Druze and Bedouin tribes have had tense relations for decades.- ‘Unthinkable’ -Witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses when they entered Sweida last week. Sunni Arab tribes also converged on the area in support of the Bedouin.The ceasefire effectively began on Sunday after Bedouin and tribal fighters withdrew from Sweida city and Druze groups regained control.The US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said on Monday that what had happened in Sweida was “unthinkable”.”You have a Syrian government in effect. They need to be held accountable,” he told a press conference on a visit to neighbouring Lebanon.The weekend ceasefire announcement came hours after Barrack said the United States had negotiated a truce between Syria’s Islamist authorities and Israel, which had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week.Israel, which has its own Druze community, has said it was acting in defence of the group, as well as to enforce its demands for the total demilitarisation of Syria’s south.The deal allowed the deployment of government security forces in Sweida province but not its main city.An AFP correspondent said security forces had erected sand mounds to block some of Sweida’s entrances.Sunni tribal fighters were sitting on the roadside beyond the checkpoints.- Aid convoy -At the main hospital in Sweida city, dozens of bodies were still waiting to be identified, with a forensic medicine official at the facility saying “we still have 97 unidentified corpses”.According to the United Nations, the violence has displaced more than 128,000 people, an issue that has also made collecting and identifying bodies more difficult.More than 450 of the dead had been brought to the Sweida national hospital by Sunday evening, with more still being recovered from the streets and homes.”The dead bodies sent a terrible smell through all the floors of the hospital,” said nurse Hisham Breik, who had not left the facility since the violence began.”The situation has been terrible. We couldn’t walk around the hospital without wearing a mask,” he said, his voice trembling, adding that the wounded included women, children and the elderly.The United Nations’ humanitarian office said hospitals and health centres in Sweida province were out of service, with “reports of unburied bodies raising serious public health concerns”.Humanitarian access to Sweida “remains highly constrained”, it said in a statement late Sunday.On Sunday, a first humanitarian aid convoy entered the city, which has seen power and water cuts and shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies.A Red Crescent official told AFP the supplies included body bags.

The World Health Organization said Monday its facilities in Gaza had come under Israeli attack, echoing calls from Western countries for an immediate ceasefire as Israel expanded military operations to the central city of Deir el-Balah.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Israeli military had entered the UN agency’s staff residence, forced women and children to evacuate on foot, and handcuffed, stripped and interrogated male staff at gunpoint.Earlier, more than two dozen Western countries called for an immediate end to the war, saying suffering there had “reached new depths”.After more than 21 months of fighting that have triggered catastrophic humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s more than two million people, Israeli allies Britain, France, Australia, Canada and 21 other countries, plus the EU, said in a joint statement that the war “must end now”.”The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,” the signatories added, urging a negotiated ceasefire, the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants and the free flow of much-needed aid.Tedros, who also condemned an attack on the WHO’s main warehouse in Deir el-Balah, echoed that call: “A ceasefire is not just necessary, it is overdue,” he said on X.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the countries’ statement, saying any international pressure should be on Hamas, while US ambassador Mike Huckabee called the joint letter “disgusting”.Key mediator Egypt, however, endorsed the message.The Western plea came with Deir el-Balah under intense shelling on Monday, after Israel’s military the day before had ordered residents to leave, warning of imminent action in an area where it had not previously operated.Between 50,000 and 80,000 people were in the area when the evacuation order was issued, according to initial estimates from the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA.Deir el-Balah resident Abdullah Abu Saleem, 48, told AFP on Monday that “during the night, we heard huge and powerful explosions shaking the area as if it were an earthquake”.He said this was “due to artillery shelling in the south-central part of Deir el-Balah and the southeastern area”.”We are extremely worried and fearful that the army is planning a ground operation,” he added.- ‘Extremely critical’ -In their statement, the Western countries also denounced Israel’s aid delivery model in Gaza, saying it was “dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity”.The UN has recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food since late May, when Israel began easing a more than two-month aid blockade. “We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,” the statement said.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned through his spokesman the “accelerating breakdown of humanitarian conditions”, noting “the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition”.In Deir el-Balah, AFP images showed plumes of dark smoke billowing into the sky.The spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP it had “received calls from several families trapped in the Al-Baraka area of Deir el-Balah due to shelling by Israeli tanks”.The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.Since the start of the war, nearly all of Gaza’s population has been displaced at least once by repeated Israeli evacuation orders.According to OCHA, the latest order means that 87.8 percent of the territory is now under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones.Hamdi Abu Mughseeb, 50, told AFP that he and his family had fled northwards from their tent south of Deir el-Balah at dawn following a night of intense shelling.”There is no safe place anywhere in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “I don’t know where we can go.”Mai Elawawda, communications officer in Gaza for the UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, said the situation was “extremely critical”, describing shelling “all around our office.” – ‘Shocked and alarmed’ -The families of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel said they were “shocked and alarmed” by reports of evacuation orders for parts of Deir el-Balah.The Hostages and Missing Families Forum demanded political and military authorities “clearly explain why the offensive in the Deir el-Balah area does not put the hostages at serious risk”.Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Civil defence spokesman Bassal reported at least 15 people killed by Israeli forces across Gaza on Monday.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties.Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,029 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Hamas’s 2023 attack, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Wall Street stocks largely rose Monday as markets looked ahead to a heavy week of earnings reports following last week’s overall solid results.Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq advanced to finished at fresh records, while the Dow edged lower.”There is obviously momentum here,” said FHN Financial’s Chris Low, who cited an improving US economic outlook …

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