CAIRO – An Egyptian court Monday banned the Muslim Brotherhood and its vast social services network on Monday, freezing its finances and seizing its assets in what could be yet another devastating blow to the Islamist organization that swept former President Mohammed Morsi to power and has fiercely resisted the popularly supported military coup that ousted him in July.
The far-reaching ruling appears to cover any group remotely associated with the world's oldest Islamist movement, potentially widening an already-sweeping crackdown that has seen hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters killed and thousands more, including top leaders, arrested.
The ban covers "all the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, the groups emerging from it, its associations, and any institution that branches from it or follows the group or receives financial support from it," according to Egypt's official state media outlet MENA.
The ruling was issued by the so-called "Court of Urgent Matters," which legal experts said had dubious authority to do so. They noted that other cases challenging the Brotherhood are pending before administrative courts that could yet modify Monday's ruling.
And as a technical matter, they note, the shadowy Brotherhood barely exists as a legal entity to be banned. The only organization officially affiliated with the Brotherhood was registered in April, but it has little money and none of the Brotherhood's leaders are part of it. The finances of the group, as well as its social projects such as hospitals, clinics, schools and other entities are generally kept in the names of individuals, a strategy that has helped the Brotherhood survive underground for the past 70 years.
Affiliates targeted
As a practical matter, however, the new decision provides Egypt's military-backed government with a temporary legal basis to go after just about any organization it might deem a Brotherhood affiliate.
"It is giving the government the broadest possible mandate to start sifting through all kinds of organizations and entities and freeze assets belonging to the Brotherhood," said Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. "It's yet another tool in the box of the mastermind behind the current crackdown on the Brotherhood."
Since the July 4 coup, security forces under the direction of Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi have arrested the first, second and third layers of Brotherhood leaders including Morsi. Many have been branded as "terrorists" and charged with crimes that the group's supporters contend are fabricated.
