CAIRO (AP) — Rights group Amnesty International says a new law ratified by Egypt's president that imposes unprecedentedly harsh restrictions on NGOs could be "a death sentence" for human rights groups in the country.

In a Tuesday statement, it called the law, signed by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi a day earlier, "a catastrophic blow for human rights groups working in Egypt."

The law comes as part of el-Sissi's wider crackdown on dissent since he rose to power in 2013, when he led a military overthrow of his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi.

Supporters believe that the law is necessary to regulate the groups accused of feeding chaos starting from the 2011 popular uprising that led to the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak.