Parliament debates anti-terror law amid opposition rejection

The Parliament is currently struggling to complete a law on terrorism in Yemen. A bitter controversy has arisen over just how many powers the state will have over the citizen.

The Yemeni Parliament debated the anti-terror law on Sunday 3 August, and referred it to a special committee for further examination before it is returned to the Parliament for a vote. In the debate, members agreed to omit the provisions that contradict the Yemeni constitution.

In the session held on Sunday, the members of parliament (MPs) entrusted a parliamentary committee composed of several parliamentary subcommittees to study the anti-terror draft law and to present an informative report to MPs. 

Some opposition and independent members rejected the draft law and said it contradicts the constitution.

Islah party MPs refused the draft law on anti-terror, on the grounds that it will give the authorities greater rights to intercept phone calls and emails. The head of Islah’s bloc in the Parliament, Abdulrahman Ba Fadhl, said that the definition of terror in the draft is inappropriate, as it would bring Yemen back to a totalitarian regime, confiscating rights and freedoms, abolishing the right to opposition, to organize sit-ins, demonstrations and other peaceful protest activities. He said that the new law places every Yemeni citizen under the observation of the security authorities.

Two MPs from the General People’s Congress (GPC) also remarked that the draft law presented by the government did not give a specific definition of terror. However, the deputy speaker of the Parliament, Hemyar al-Ahmar, clarified that many articles of the draft concerning acts described as terror, are present in the laws on crime and punishment under other names, in addition to others mentioned in the law on kidnapping and highway robbery. 

MP Sakhr al-Wajih believes that the new ‘contribution’ of the anti-terror draft law contains articles violating Yemen’s constitution, related to intercepting telephone calls, inspecting correspondence and not binding prosecution to abide by any law during investigations. “The draft law is a way to exert terror against citizens and will result in producing more extremist citizens,” said al-Wajih. 

Other bloc MPs rejected the law because it contradicts the constitution, demanding that the effective penal, kidnapping and other laws should be implemented instead. 
 
The PGC MP Ja’far Ba Saleh expressed concern over the law describing it as dangerous, calling for its reconsideration in order to be matched with effective laws. MP Nabil Basha confirmed Ba Saleh’s view point and criticized the government for tailoring terrorism concepts in line with the American ones.

Dr. Mansur al-Zandani, called for reconsidering the law because it threatens all citizens’ freedom by putting them under security observation, because of terror pretexts, criticizing the government for copying the terror definitions from the American law .MP Mohammed al-Hajj al-Salehi said that the law is absurd and said It is a copy of the American congress version, adding that “we have the Islamic sharia law, and the penal law,  which is derived from the sharia law and they both criminate what is mentioned in  the law. Al-Salehi cited article 53 of the law which approves censorship and searching, of travelers, messages and parcels and wiretapping, which he described as unconstitutional.

Independent MP Shakhr al-Wajih, said, “this is a citizen terrorizing law,” adding that it is going to create extremists and terrorists out of the citizens, calling for implementation of the present effective laws, which the government didn’t implement or failed to Implement. Al-Wajih justified his rejection by pointing out that the law is included in the penal laws and because it gives the prosecution the interrogation right without abiding by the procedural penal law.

Islah MP Abdul-razak al-Hajari condemned what he called the government’s coping with what is on vogue, adding that the precise description of this law is “the law of approved kidnapping and banditry.”

Islah MP Saleh Sanabani criticized the government’s imitation to the west, describing the law as western intrigue to keep other countries under their grip. 

He rejected the Yemeni terror definition and called for abiding by the UN definitions, pointing out that terror is not approved by anyone, however, terror is mixed up with resistance’s concepts, wondering over the state’s terror being practiced by Israel and America in Palestine and Iraq.

Related Content

•  Al-Qaeda statement denies official reports
•  Dutch police detains two Yemenis on US flight
•  Mysterious fate of Sa’dah deputy security director
•  Government and Houthis sign schedule for implementing 22 points
•  Final qualifying stage for Yemen poet, Al-Aqeeq channel
•  Economic Media Center demands traders maintain reasonable prices
•  SCER mandates education to review voters tables for 2010
•  More than million children out of school, government report
•  Intensifying al-Qaeda attacks are government’s biggest challenge, President Saleh
•  Abyan al-Qaeda attacks security raising death toll to 23 troops