Egypt will extend a national state of emergency for three months after the government approved President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's proposal to do so, the cabinet said on Thursday, amid an ongoing militant campaign against a Christian minority. Parliament unanimously approved a three-month state of emergency in April, broadening the power of authorities to crack down on what they call enemies of the state after two church bombings killed at least 45. The state of emergency, which would have expired at the end of June, has been extended by three months, Cabinet statement showed, meaning it will now last at least until the end of September. Egypt faces an insurgency in the restive Sinai Peninsula, where hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed since 2013. The group has increasingly carried out attacks in the mainland against Coptic Christian civilians in recent months, killing around 100 Copts since December. Police killed seven people in connection with the violence against Christians on Thursday. Security forces found militants hiding in a desert training camp, the Interior Ministry said. They attempted to arrest the men, who opened fire. Police returned fire and have so far found seven bodies as well as weapons, a motorcycle, and military uniforms, the ministry said in a statement. Sisi pardons 502 prisoners including well-known tycoon Meanwhile, Sisi has pardoned 502 prisoners before the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, state media said on Friday, including prominent businessman Hesham Talaat Moustafa, according to security sources. No list of names was immediately available, but the prisoners to be released include 25 women and "a large number of youth jailed in cases involving protesting and gathering," state news agency MENA reported, without specifying how many. Since seizing power in mid-2013 from the Muslim Brotherhood, Sisi has presided over a crackdown on Islamist opponents that has seen hundreds killed and many thousands jailed. Activists and liberal opponents have also been imprisoned. A law requiring permission from the Interior Ministry for any public gathering of more than 10 people is strictly enforced and has largely succeeded in ending the kind of mass demonstrations that helped unseat two presidents in three years. Security sources said that among those pardoned was Hesham Talaat Moustafa, the former chairman of one of Egypt's largest real estate developers, Talaat Mostafa Group. Moustafa had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for hiring a hitman to kill Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim in 2008. He was pardoned on health concerns, the security sources said. Sisi ordered the Interior Ministry to implement the decision before the start of the holiday, which immediately follows the holy month of Ramadan that ends this Saturday. — Reuters
