Egypt freezes assets of 1,345 MB members in 18 months

Egyptian authorities have frozen the assets of 1,345 members of the Muslim Brotherhood over the past 18 months, an Egyptian official said Thursday.

Ezzat Khamis, the head of a government-appointed committee tasked with running the Brotherhood’s assets, said the panel has also seized 103 Brotherhood-linked schools over the same period.

“The committee has also taken over 1,117 NGOs and 50 hospitals for Brotherhood links,” Khamis added at a press conference in Cairo.

In September 2013, an Egyptian court banned the activities of the Brotherhood, once Egypt’s best organized group.

The court also ordered the group’s dissolution and the confiscation of its offices and funds.

Following the ruling, the government formed a committee tasked with managing the group’s assets.

The Muslim Brotherhood was designated a “terrorist organization” by the Egyptian government in late 2013 shortly after the military coup that ousted former President Mohamed Morsi.

The Brotherhood, for its part, insists that it is committed to peaceful activism.