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Egypt Court Orders Seizure of Funds, Assets of 89 Brotherhood Members

In this file photo, Egyptian security forces stand guard outside a court in Cairo, Egypt, January 3, 2018. Reuters
In this file photo, Egyptian security forces stand guard outside a court in Cairo, Egypt, January 3, 2018. Reuters
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Egypt Court Orders Seizure of Funds, Assets of 89 Brotherhood Members

In this file photo, Egyptian security forces stand guard outside a court in Cairo, Egypt, January 3, 2018. Reuters
In this file photo, Egyptian security forces stand guard outside a court in Cairo, Egypt, January 3, 2018. Reuters

An Egyptian court on Sunday ordered the seizure of assets of 89 members and leaders of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and their transfer to the public treasury.

The Court for Urgent Matters targeted in its verdict former president Mohammed Morsi, Brotherhood’s supreme guide Mohamed Badie, his deputy Khairat al-Shater and former legislator Mohamed Beltagy.

Among the other most prominent jailed figures are preacher Safwat Hegazi, Mufti Abdel Rahman al-Barr, as well as leaders Mohsen Rady, Asaad El Sheikha, and others.

Morsi died in June 2019 while on trial, after six years in prison, so the seizure applies to assets inherited by his family.

The seizure is one of several initiated by a commission charged with implementing a 2018 law on the “organization and management of the assets of terrorists and terrorist groups.”

The army ousted Morsi after a year in power, following mass popular protests against his presidency in June 2013.

A 2015 Law for Organizing Lists of Terrorist Entities and Terrorists stipulated freezing terrorists’ funds and assets once used in carrying out terrorist activities.

However, the law was amended in January 2020 and now stipulates that once an entity or a terrorist is enlisted, all the assets and funds shall be frozen, along with those of the entities’ terrorist members.

Separately, Egypt’s Public Prosecutor Hamada El Sawi referred three defendants to the state security emergency court on multiple charges, including joining a terrorist group in Libya with the aim of carrying out attacks in Egypt.

According to a statement by the public prosecution on Sunday, the three defendants — two fugitives and a detained citizen — are accused of assuming leadership positions in the Mourabitoun terrorist group and joining al-Qaeda in Libya.

The group was led by Hesham Ashmawy, a former Egyptian army officer who was convicted of terrorism and executed by Egyptian authorities in early 2020 after being extradited from Libya.

The defendant admitted he joined a terrorist group in Egypt after escaping from prison in the wake of the January 25 Revolution in 2011, the statement read.

He confessed that he travelled to Libya, as per his group’s orders, to be trained and return to Egypt to carry out terrorist attacks.

In Libya, he and many others, including the two fugitives in the case, met with Ashmawy.

The now-detained citizen practiced organizational activities in this group until the Libyan armed forces detained him and Ashmawy and later extradited them to Egypt, the statement added.

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UNRWA Says ‘Growing Concerns’ Annexation behind Israeli West Bank Operation

An Israeli military vehicle is seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 04 March 2025. (EPA)
An Israeli military vehicle is seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 04 March 2025. (EPA)
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UNRWA Says ‘Growing Concerns’ Annexation behind Israeli West Bank Operation

An Israeli military vehicle is seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 04 March 2025. (EPA)
An Israeli military vehicle is seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 04 March 2025. (EPA)

A major offensive in the occupied West Bank which over several weeks has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians and ravaged refugee camps increasingly appears to be part of Israel's "vision of annexation", a UN official told AFP.

Israeli forces carry out regular raids targeting gunmen in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, but the ongoing operation since late January is already the longest in two decades, with dire effects on Palestinians.

"It's an unprecedented situation, both from a humanitarian and wider political perspective," said Roland Friedrich, director of West Bank affairs for UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees.

"We talk about 40,000 people that have been forcibly displaced from their homes" in the northern West Bank, mainly from three refugee camps where the operation had begun, said Friedrich.

"These camps are now largely empty," their residents unable to return and struggling to find shelter elsewhere, he said.

Inside the camps, the level of destruction to "electricity, sewage and water, but also private houses" was "very concerning", Friedrich added.

The Israeli operation, which the military says targets gunmen in the northern West Bank, was launched shortly after a truce took hold in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, a separate Palestinian territory.

The operation initially focused on Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps, where UNRWA operates, but has since expanded to more areas of the West Bank's north.

Friedrich warned that as the offensive drags on, there are increasing signs -- some backed by official Israeli statements -- that it could morph into permanent military presence in Palestinian cities.

"There are growing concerns that the reality being created on the ground aligns with the vision of annexation of the West Bank," he said.

- 'Political operation' -

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said troops would remain for many months in the evacuated camps to "prevent the return of residents and the resurgence of terrorism".

And Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right politician who lives in one of dozens of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, has said that Israel would be "applying sovereignty" over parts of the territory in 2025.

According to Friedrich, "the statements we are hearing indicate that this is a political operation. It is clearly being said that people will not be allowed to return."

Last year the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion saying that Israel's prolonged presence in the West Bank was unlawful.

Away from home, the displaced Palestinian residents also grapple with a worsening financial burden.

"There is an increasing demand now, especially in Jenin, for public shelter, because people can't pay these amounts for rent anymore," said Friedrich.

"Everyone wants to go back to the camps."

The UN official provided examples he said pointed to plans for long-term Israeli presence inside Palestinian cities, which should be under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

"In Tulkarem you have more and more reports about the army just walking around... asking shop owners to keep the shops open, going out and issuing traffic tickets to cars, so almost as if there is no Palestinian Authority," said Friedrich.

"It is very worrying, including for the future of the PA as such and the investments made by the international community into building Palestinian institutions."

The Ramallah-based PA was created in the 1990s as a temporary government that would pave the way to a future sovereign state.

- 'Radicalization' -

UNRWA is the main humanitarian agency for Palestinians, but a recent law bars the agency from working with the Israeli authorities, hindering its badly needed operations.

"It's much more complicated for us now because we can't speak directly to the military anymore," said Friedrich.

"But at the same time, we continue to do our work," he said, assessing needs and coordinating "the actual emergency response on the ground".

Israeli lawmakers had passed the legislation against UNRWA's work over accusations that it had provided cover for Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip -- claims the UN and many donor governments dispute.

The prolonged Israeli operation could have long-term consequences for residents, particularly children traumatized by the experience of displacement, Friedrich warned.

"If people can't go back to the camp and we can't reopen the schools... clearly, that will lead to more radicalization going forward."

He said the situation could compound a legitimacy crisis for the PA, often criticized by armed Palestinian factions for coordinating security matters with Israel.

Displaced Palestinians "feel that they are kicked out of their homes and that nobody is supporting them", said Friedrich.

A "stronger international response" was needed, he added, "both to provide humanitarian aid on the ground, and secondly, to ensure that the situation in the West Bank doesn't spin out of control".