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Middle East
Egypt freezes Brotherhood assets
Twenty-nine members including senior members remain in detention.
Last Modified: 28 Feb 2007 16:19 GMT
Khairat el-Shatir, right, is the Brotherhood’s third-highest ranking member [AFP]
A Cairo court has upheld a freeze on the assets of 29 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition movement.

 

The public prosecutor ordered the freeze on January 28 after accusing the 29 of money laundering and other offences.

The Muslim Brotherhood has dismissed the decision as a politically motivated attempt to disrupt the organisation's activities on Wednesday.

 

The members include Khairat el-Shatir, the most senior Brotherhood member detained in a government crackdown in December.

Election gains

 

Members of the Brotherhood, one of the oldest and most influential Islamist groups in the Arab world, won one-fifth of the seats in the Egyptian parliament in elections in 2005. 

"The accused have been receiving money from outside the country to finance the Brotherhood's wicked activities"

Egyptian court

The group, which advocates change through democratic means, had to run as independents because the government refuses to recognise the movement or let it form a political party.

   

In its ruling, the Cairo criminal court dismissed the group's attempt to have the freeze overturned and appointed an official of state-run National Bank of Egypt to manage the assets.

   

It said the prosecution had given enough evidence that the accusations of money laundering were serious.

   

"The accused have been receiving money from outside the country to finance the brotherhood's wicked activities, buying and setting up commercial companies and investment institutions as a cover to hide the sources of these funds," the court said.

   

Authorities have given no estimate of the value of the assets.

   

A brotherhood official said on Wednesday that 186 members of the group remain in custody.

Source:
Agencies
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