Egypt's emergency law leaves trail of tears

CAIRO-Fifteen years after police took away her husband, Zeinab Ahmed says she has lost hope he will return to help raise their daughter, born while he was in jail.Mohamed el-Leithi stood trial in a military court with dozens of Islamists charged with belonging to the radical group Vanguards of Conquest. He was acquitted but remains in jail under an emergency law that allows police to hold suspects for long periods without charge."Where is justice?" said Ahmed, wearing a black veil that only showed eyes welling with tears. "Drug dealers get out of jail. Murderers get out of jail. What has he done?"About 18,000 Egyptians are detained without charge under the emergency law, in force since Islamist militants assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981, Amnesty International says.The prospect for their early release diminished this week when parliament extended the law for two years. Local and international human rights groups accuse the ruling establishment of using it to crush dissent.Ahmed and others with family members in detention share tales of months spent trying to find out where their relatives are detained, fruitless court release orders, financial hardship and traumatized children visiting their fathers behind bars.During eight years when Leithi was in a prison about 450 km (300 miles) south of Cairo, Ahmed said she visited him only a handful of times a year because she could not afford to travel."I don't have money. My father was supporting me financially. He died. Now my brothers support me," she said. Both Leithi's parents died when he was in jail.
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As in the days of Noah....