| 1 | Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has approved an anti-terrorism law that sets up special courts and provides protections to its enforcers in the face of a two-year-long insurgency that aims to topple his government. |
| 2 | The law also details sentences for various terrorism crimes ranging from five years to the death penalty. |
| 3 | It also shields those applying it, such as the military and police, from legal ramifications for the proportionate use of force "in performing their duties." |
| 4 | Mr Sisi had promised a tougher legal system in July, after a car bomb attack that killed the top public prosecutor, the highest level state official to be killed in years. |
| 5 | Forming or leading a group deemed a "terrorist entity" by the government will be punishable by death or life in prison. |
| 6 | Membership in such a group will carry up to ten years in jail. |
| 7 | Financing "terrorist groups" will also carry a penalty of life in prison, which in Egypt is 25 years. |
| 8 | Inciting violence, which includes "promoting ideas that call for violence" will lead to between five and seven years in jail, as will creating or using websites that spread such ideas. |
| 9 | Journalists will be fined for contradicting the authorities' version of any terrorist attack. |
| 10 | The original draft of the law was amended following domestic and international outcry after it initially called for imprisonment for such an offence. |
| 11 | Egypt is facing an increasingly violent insurgency in North Sinai, where the most active militant group has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. |
| 12 | Cairo and other cities have also witnessed attacks. |
| 13 | The insurgency, which has killed hundreds of soldiers and police, has intensified since Mr Sisi, a former army chief, ousted the Islamist former President Mohamed Mursi after mass protests against his rule in 2013. |
| 14 | The law has come under fire from human rights groups who accuse Mr Sisi of rolling back freedoms won in the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak. |
| 15 | "This is taking us back to the Mubarak era and the 30-year state of emergency that helped push Egyptians to the streets in 2011," Mohamed Elmessiry, Egypt researcher at Amnesty International, said in a statement. |
| 16 | "Despite security forces having a record of excessive use of force, this law...paves the way for impunity." |
| 17 | Mr Elmessiry also said the law would in effect remove the current two-year limit on pre-trial detention by allowing prosecutors to ask to renew suspects' detention indefinitely. |
| 18 | "The law contravenes the Egyptian constitution and national laws, let alone international law," he said. |