Cairo: Egypt’s inexorable clampdown on Islamist and secular dissidents will most likely continue in 2015, diminishing prospects for democratic freedoms, experts and rights activists have said.

“All official signs indicate that fighting terrorism will continue to be the prime priority for the Egyptian government in the next year,” Salah al-Hadi, a political analyst, said. “With his military background, Al Sissi seems resolved to show his credentials in restoring stability in Egypt to encourage investors to come back to the country,” Al Hadi said, referring to incumbent President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, who previously served as defence minister.

Al Sissi took the presidential office in June with a pledge to re-establish security and rejuvenate the economy battered by the unrest that hit Egypt in the years that followed the ouster of long-time president Hosni Mubarak in a 2011 uprising.

Last year, Al Sissi, the then army chief, led the military’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi, a move that infuriated the latter’s backers and triggered a wave of deadly attacks against security forces by suspected Islamist insurgents.

“Six months after Al Sissi became a president, the security situation has improved a lot. But the price paid for this is high,” said al-Hadi. “The mass detention campaign pursued by security agencies since Mursi’s toppling has not been limited to his supporters. It has also targeted even his opponents, who played a big role on June 30,” he added, referring to the day when massive street protests began against Mursi, culminating three days later in his removal after one year in power. “The challenge facing Al Sissi in his presidency is how to keep a balance between restoring security on the one hand and preserving human rights and freedom on the other.”

Thousands of Islamists have been rounded up and put on trial since Mursi’s removal allegedly for inciting or participating in violence. Mursi’s now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood has dismissed the trials as unfair and politically

motivated. The government says the country’s judiciary operates independently.

Meanwhile, dozens of secular pro-democracy campaigners, who also mobilized the uprising against Mubarak, have been jailed for violating a disputed law that heavily restricts public rallies. The law, which empowers police to block any street demonstration deemed a threat to society’s security, has drawn condemnation from local and foreign rights advocates.

Critics have repeatedly accused police of returning to the Mubarak-style oppression, an accusation denied by the government.

“I am not optimistic about the New Year,” Osama Al Sherif, a rights activist, said. “What we have seen in 2014 does not augur well for what lies ahead. In addition to the large-scale detentions and intolerance of opponents’ views, there is an increase in referring civilians to military trials. It is absurd to believe that this will defeat terrorism.”

In October, Al Sissi, who temporarily wields legislative authority, signed a law empowering the army to join police in securing state institutions. Under this law, people suspected of attacking public facilities are to be tried at military courts, which rights advocates say lack guarantees for fair trials.

At least 820 civilians have been referred to military prosecutors in the past six weeks based on the decree, the Human Rights Watch said earlier this week.

“Curtailing the use of military courts to try civilians was one of the few tangible gains of the 2011 revolution, but that’s out the window now,” said the New York-based watchdog. “Al-Sisi’s administration is methodically reversing the reforms achieved in 2011.”

Al Sissi was quoted in state media on Sunday as telling a gathering of prominent writers in Cairo that his “key mission is to safeguard the state”.

“It is increasingly clear that Egypt is coming nearer to adopt the model of the strong president, who wants to revive the strength of the state, but not to reform it,” wrote columnist Amr Al Shubki in the independent newspaper Al Masri Al Youm.

“This means more reliance on security measures, which have sometimes become harsher and tougher than they were in the Mubarak era.”