Egypt seizes funds of 46 for alleged links to Muslim Brotherhood

The Egyptian authorities on Monday seized the funds of 46 individuals and five companies with alleged links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, according to a government commission.

The move brings the total number of people whose funds have been seized for alleged links to the Brotherhood to more than 1,370 over the last three years and the number of companies and NGOs with alleged links to the group to 1,125.

In a statement, a government-run commission tasked with confiscating and managing funds seized from allegedly Brotherhood-linked people and companies announced it had appropriated the assets of Mohamed Abdel-Gawwad, a leading Brotherhood member and a former head of Egypt’s Pharmacists’ Syndicate.

The commission did not mention the names of the other 45 individuals whose funds had recently been seized.

The commission went on to note that it had tasked Egypt’s Health Ministry with managing funds confiscated from allegedly Brotherhood-linked pharmaceutical companies; a “Societies Fund” with managing funds seized from allegedly Brotherhood-linked NGOs; and Egypt’s Business Sector Ministry with managing assets seized from allegedly Brotherhood-linked real-estate companies.

In late 2013, some two months after former President Mohamed Morsi was ousted in a military coup, a Cairo court formally outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and began seizing all movable and immovable assets associated with the group.

Along with being Egypt’s first freely-elected president, Morsi — who is currently languishing in jail where he faces a host of trumped-up charges — is a leading Brotherhood member.

Based on the 2013 court ruling, the Egyptian government in early 2014 formed a commission to manage seized assets, dubbed the “Commission to Confiscate and Manage Muslim Brotherhood Funds”.

In January of this year, the commission announced it had confiscated more than 5.5 billion Egyptian pounds (roughly $310 million) to date from persons, companies and NGOs linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.