Egypt proposes stripping citizenship from individuals posing a 'security threat' to the state

The proposed amendment to Article 26/1975 opens grounds for stripping citizenship from members of any group or entity - based at home or abroad - seen to be "illegally working to undermine the state's political, social or economic order", according to a government statement.

The new amendment needs to be approved by parliament and later ratified by the president before it comes into force.

A judicial source told The New Arab that despite "major constitutional problems the amendment poses, there will be strong attempts to make it pass".

The current law provides for the withdrawal of citizenship if it is acquired through fraudulent means.

Authorities have already stripped citizenship from scores of people who acquired it during the one-year rule of the then-democratically elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Most current detainees in Egypt are alleged supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, which rose to power after the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak but has been the target of a crackdown since the military overthrew Morsi in 2013.

In 2015, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approved a new law that defines "terrorist entities" as groups or individuals who call to "undermine laws, obstruct the functioning of state institutions, seek to attack the personal liberty of citizens or harm national unity of social peace".

Egypt has since detained more than 60,000 people, while hundreds have been forcibly disappeared and hundreds more have been received death sentences as part of mass trials.

Agencies contributed to this report.