DHAKA: A court in Egypt has banned ‘all activities’ by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Cairo administrative court said its ruling applied to the Islamist group, its non-governmental organisation and ‘any organisation derived from it’.

It also ordered the interim government to seize the Brotherhood’s funds and form a panel to administer its frozen assets until any appeal had been heard, report the BBC.

The military authorities have launched a crackdown on the group since ousting president Mohammed Mursi on 3 July.

Dozens of senior Brotherhood figures, including its general guide Mohammed Badie, have been detained on suspicion of inciting violence and murder.

Hundreds of people demanding Mursi’s reinstatement, most of them Brotherhood members, have also been killed in clashes with security forces, who portray the crackdown as a struggle against ‘terrorism’.

The 85-year-old Islamist movement was banned by Egypt’s military rulers in 1954, but registered itself as an NGO in March in response to a court case bought by opponents who contested its legal status.

The Brotherhood also has a legally registered political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which was set up in 2011 as a ‘non-theocratic’ group after the uprising that forced president Hosni Mubarak from power.

BDST: 1849 HRS, SEPT 23, 2013
RoR/GCP