Egyptian court rules 'lack of jurisdiction' in designating Hamas a terrorist group

The Alexandria Court for Urgent Matters on Tuesday said it lacked the jurisdiction to pass a lawsuit urging the Egyptian government to label Turkey a terrorism-sponsoring state and to designate the April 6 activist group and Palestinian movement Hamas as terrorist organisations.

Lawyer Tarek Mahmoud, who filed the four lawsuits, claimed that Turkey had supported the Muslim Brotherhood and opened its territories as refuge for Muslim Brotherhood members who incite against the current regime headed by Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

“Turkey adopted hostile stances against Egypt after it became a haven for Muslim Brotherhood leaders who face criminal charges in Egypt,” a judicial source quoted Mahmoud as saying in the lawsuit.

Mahmoud accused Hamas of being involved in hostile acts against Egypt and of storming Egyptian prisons during the January 25 revolution in 2011.