CAIRO - The head of Egypt's ruling military council said on Tuesday he had decided to lift a state of emergency from Wednesday except in certain cases, a move one lawmaker said did not amount to a full cancellation of laws in place since 1981.
"I have taken a decision to end the state of emergency," Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi said in a televised address, adding that it would still apply in dealing with cases of "thuggery". He did not spell out what that meant."This is not a real cancellation of the state of emergency," said Essam Sultan, a newly elected member of parliament from the Wasat Party, a moderate Islamist group.
"The proper law designates the ending of the state of emergency completely or enforcing it completely, nothing in between," he said.
