Cairo; demands to end the state of emergency in preparation for reforms

Egyptian activists including heads of parties called for ending the state of emergency announced since 1981 in the country in preparation for vaster political reforms.

In a conference held at the headquarters of the Progressive National coalition party in Cairo on Sunday evening they called for the release of detainees held according to the state of emergency and to re-try those sentenced by military courts and amending the law in a way that the state of emergency cannot be declared except in cases of actual war and natural disasters.

The secretary general of the coalition party and the raparrateur of the conference Hussein Abdul Razeq said "we want punished those who tortured and the rulers who ordered it and made of it a systematic policy for the authority in Egypt." He added:" Torture has become a general policy in the detainees and prisons, the police centers and place of detentions."