In a rare burst of public relations activity yesterday, the Egyptian embassy in London circulated emails to journalists about the latest extension of the country's emergency law which has been in place since 1967 (apart from a short break around 1980).

For several years the government has been saying it will end the state of emergency as soon as a "balanced" anti-terrorism law can be put in place. It reiterated this promise to the UN Human Rights Council in February.

However, producing an anti-terrorism law is taking an inordinate amount of time and proving rather problematic – hence the latest extension of the emergency law for a further two years. Last November a UN report heavily criticised Egypt's draft of the proposed anti-terrorism law.

The London embassy's PR offensive seems intended to head off western media criticism of the emergency law's further extension. The email – the first I had received from them for several years – included three attachments: a translation of prime minister Ahmed Nazif's speech, a "fact sheet" and a press release.

The fact sheet sought to justify the situation by saying that maintaining a state of emergency for years on end is by no means unusual, especially in the Middle East. "Israel has operated under a state of emergency since its founding in 1948," it said. "Other countries which have decided to take such measures include Pakistan (1977-1985 among others instances), Syria (since 1963), Algeria (since 1992) and Turkey (1971-2002)."

The press release explained how in future the emergency law will be applied "solely for the purposes of countering terrorism and narcotics trafficking", and a note at the end of the email from the embassy's press chief said: "I am sure you will agree with me that this is a very important step towards enhancing the path of liberty and democracy."

Many Egyptians are not so sure about that, and neither am I. The claim that the law will in future be limited to combating terrorism and narcotics has been greeted with widespread scepticism. See, for example, the reports in al-Masry al-Youm and the New York Times, plus the statement from the Egyptian Human Rights Organisation.

However, if the Egyptian government is really serious about this it could start by releasing Hany Nazeer, the blogger who has been arbitrarily detained under the emergency law since October 2008. Nazeer's case has nothing to do with terrorism or drugs (except, conceivably, in the sense that Karl Marx considered religion to be the opium of the people).

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 12 May 2010.

UPDATE,13 May: Human Rights Watch issued a highly critical statement about the renewal of the emergency law.