Muslim Brotherhood Loses Legal Status, Assets Frozen in Egyptian Court

A court in Cairo has banned the Muslim Brotherhood after a lawsuit filed against the 85-year-old group by a Nasserist party.

The Brotherhood registered as a non-governmental organization in March in an attempt to save its hide. It was accused of violating NGO rules by using its offices to store explosives and weapons.

Mohamed Badie, leader of the Brotherhood, had already been detained along with other high-ranking members of the group on charges of inciting violence against peaceful Tamarod protesters.

The Tagammu Party’s lawsuit against the MB demanded a ban on its activities within the country and freezing its assets.

Islamists can still operate through the MB-backed Freedom and Justice Party.

The Brotherhood was banned under former President Hosni Mubarak but still ran a charity network intended to gain support among the people.

A year and a half after Mubarak’s ouster, the MB won elections — but with only 50 percent voter turnout. Mohamed Morsi was ousted by a peaceful rebellion on July 3.

Secretary of State John Kerry met yesterday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy in New York, where leaders are gathered for the UN General Assembly.

A senior State Department official said they talked about “the importance of free speech, the importance of combating terrorism, the importance of differentiating between the two, the importance of there being a transparent, inclusive process, as the roadmap progresses, and the importance of allowing the judicial process to move forward in an appropriate way as Egyptians look at the numbers of people who have been arrested and other judicial processes that they’ve got underway.”

“The Secretary talked – he asked about the – all the numbers that have been arrested. He talked about the difficulties with civil society that – the difficulty that civil society is experiencing now in Egypt. He – and in asking about it, said what is the prospect, for instance, on lifting the emergency – the state of emergency, that the – that that would be an important indicator of Egypt’s plan to actually build democratic institutions and move to the kind of civilian-led government that it has said it’s moving to in the roadmap.”