An Egyptian court has banned all activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country. Its assets will also be confiscated according to the court ruling.
"The court bans the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood organization and its non-governmental organization and all the activities that it participates in and any organization derived from it," said the presiding judge Mohammed Sayed.
The Cairo Court for Urgent Matters also ordered the
"confiscation of all the group's money, assets, and
buildings".
The Cabinet has ordered the formation of an independent committee to manage the money until final court orders are issued.
"This is totalitarian decision," leading group member
Ibrahim Moneir told Al-Jazeera Mubashir Misr TV. "You are
losers and it (the Brotherhood) will remain with God's help, not
by the orders of the judiciary of Sisi," he added,
referring to the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces,
who led the military-backed ouster of former
president Mohamed Morsi.
The Brotherhood has been outlawed for most of its 85-year
existence. It has been in its worst crisis since a similar
attempt to suppress it in the 1950s.
However, after the ouster of former long ruling President Hosni
Mubarak, it formed a political party and organized post-Mubarak
elections.
In June 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi won the presidential elections.
However, on July 3 of this year the army overthrew Morsi after he rejected the
military's ultimatum to reach an agreement with Egypt's
opposition. The constitution was also suspended.
The crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood started shortly after the army announced a power take-over, with arrest warrants for hundreds of Brotherhood officials being issued.
In March 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood registered as a recognized
non-governmental organization in response to opponents who
disputed its legal status in court.
After suspension of the Islamists’ constitution, Cairo’s
administrative court and the Ministry of Social Solidarity were
ordered to review the Brotherhood's legal status.
Earlier in September, an Egyptian judicial panel recommended the
legal dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood as an officially
registered non-governmental organization.
The court decision, which can be appealed, is likely to drive more Brotherhood members underground and encourage young Islamists to rebel against the state.
A spokesperson for the British Egyptians for Democracy activist
group, Alaa Mohamed, says the court’s decision is
“unsurprising” and is politically motivated. This, she
said, is just the start of a “a witch hunt” pursued
against those who oppose the military coup.
“This is what all military coups do – as soon as they take
power they go after every single political party that was
opposing them,” Mohamed told RT. “That’s what we have seen
with the Muslim Brotherhood. And this is not about Muslim
Brotherhood, this is about every single political, social party
as well as individuals from all backgrounds that oppose the
military coup.”