Jordan’s top court dissolves the Muslim Brotherhood

Jordan’s highest judicial authority, the Court of Cassation has issued an order to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood branch in the country.

Yesterday’s final verdict saw the Muslim Brotherhood Group indefinitely dissolved having failed to “rectify its legal status” under Jordanian law, an official said today. The ruling also bring to an end a long dispute between the Group founded in 1945 and a break-away group the Muslim Brotherhood Association which was legally recognised by the government in 2015.

As a result the Department of Land and Survey confiscated property belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood Group and gave it to the Muslim Brotherhood Association. The Group filed lawsuits to reverse the decision but the latest ruling will put an end to the legal challenge.

READ: Jordan FM: Just peace in Palestine will not be achieved by occupation

Last May, the same court deemed the original Muslim Brotherhood branch dissolved since 1953. The decision came after Hammam Saeed, who was the overall leader of the old group at the time, and others legally challenged the lawsuit filed by the legally recognised association. It was also reported that the leader of the new entity, Abdul Majeed Thneibat, said its legal status was a reformative move to ensure the Brotherhood remained a purely Jordanian organisation.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan was licensed in 1946 as a charity affiliated with the parent group in Egypt and was relicensed in 1953 as an Islamist society, but remained affiliated with Cairo. The association by contrast has never established ties with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which Cairo banned following the 2013 coup against late-President Mohamed Morsi, who stems from the group.

Dr Suad Al-Sharafat, a former Brigadier General in the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate, opined last year that the internal fragmentation within Jordan’s chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood and domestic isolation will make it unlikely that the organisation will ever return to the strength and eminence it enjoyed during the so-called Arab Spring.

The political wing of the dissolved group, the Islamic Action Front, holds 15 of the 130 seats in parliament, while the legally-recognised splinter faction went on to form the Zamzam party and won five seats in the 2016 general elections.

READ: Jordan princess marries grandson of popular children’s author Roald Dahl