Egypt freezes assets of another 65 Brotherhood members

Egypt has decided to freeze the assets of another 65 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a government-appointed committee tasked with managing the group’s assets announced in a statement on Sunday. The committee has also decided to shut down a currency exchange company in Cairo and ordered the confiscation of the company’s funds, estimated to be 9 million Egyptian pounds (around $1 million).

The assets of 12 real estate companies, tourist offices and therapy centres in the governorates of Cairo and Alexandria are included in the seizure order. According to the committee’s statement, the executive management of four pharmaceutical and real estate companies believed to be affiliated with the movement has also been changed.

With a wide-ranging brief, the government committee explained that it is coordinating with the Ministry of Education to reconstruct the management of 110 schools previously run by the Muslim Brotherhood. New senior leadership teams will be appointed in time for the 2016/17 academic year.

The Cairo Court for Urgent Matters judged in September 2013 that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt should be banned and its assets frozen. In January, chairman Ezzat Khamis told a press conference that the committee had confiscated nearly $695 million from the Brotherhood since January 2014, as well as money belonging to 1,370 people affiliated with the movement.