| Inspiring looking bugger, ain't he... |
| That uniform colour is really not becoming against his skin tone. Under the circumstances, perhaps they would let him transfer to another another branch. |
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said in a televised address to the nation that the emergency laws would be lifted effective Wednesday, the first anniversary of the start of the popular uprising that toppled longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak.
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
Tantawi and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces he chairs took power when Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, 2011.
His decision to partially lift the decades-old laws, which give police far-reaching powers, would likely not satisfy rights groups that have been campaigning for the total removal of the laws. They have complained about the repeated use by the military of the term "thugs" to justify crackdowns on protesters.
Rights groups say at least 12,000 civilians have been tried before military tribunals since the generals took power nearly a year ago. Many of them, they say, were charged with acts of "thuggery" when, in fact, they were protesters.