(Photo from Revolutionary Socialists (RevSoc) Facebook Page)
Revolutionary Socialists leader Haitham Mohammadyn reported his name is on a list of individuals given to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) by the Attorney General to have their assets seized.
The move to freeze the assets, based on State Security-compiled lists, comes over their alleged connections to terrorist groups.
The 120 individuals, believed mostly to be leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, are the latest to have their assets frozen on orders of the committee assigned to seize Brotherhood funds.
Judge Ezzat Khamis, Senior Assistant Attorney General and head of the property seizing commission, said the list includes individuals believed to be members of the Muslim Brotherhood-led Anti-Coup Alliance (ACA).
Khamis said it will be investigated whether those on the list, including Mohammadyn and any other possible Revolutionary Socialists, are members of the ACA. If proven not guilty of wrongdoing and terrorist activities, they will have their assets unfrozen. It is unclear whether the other names on the list include Revolutionary Socialists members.
However, in a message via social networking site Facebook, Mohammadyn stated that he does not know why his name has been included on the list and challenged Khamis for the pre-emptive asset seizures: “Did you ask State Security to properly investigate the names on the list, did you ask to investigate the wealth and money these names have, to make sure whether got the money legally or not?”
The Muslim Brotherhood movement was originally outlawed in September 2013 and later declared a terrorist unit on 25 December 2013. However, asset seizures of its members and prominent Islamists, ordered by Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat, began in July 2013 immediately following the ouster of Brotherhood affiliated president Mohammed Morsi.
Mohammadyn is a labour lawyer and long-time activist who was recently arrested in September 2013. He was accused of attempting to de-seat the government using terrorist means and creating an organisation to make one class dominate the others.
The Revolutionary Socialists, with roots going back to the early 1990s, were key in the 2011 protests that led to the ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak. Since then the movement has protested against the rule of the military, Muslim Brotherhood and the current Al-Sisi regime, as well as against policies such as the controversial Protest Law.
“The General Prosecutor creates fabrications and protects the corrupt and the murderers,” Mohammadyn continued on Facebook. “Why hasn’t he gathered evidence of the corruption in public sectors and the selling of the nation’s lands to thieving businessmen. Why hasn’t he done this for Mubarak and [his son] Gamal and Ahmed Ezz and Abu Ayneen and Mohamed Farid Khamis who seized billions of public funds? You will obey your orders like conscripts do and confiscate the couple of pants and t-shirts that I own.”
The committee tasked with assessing Brotherhood property and funds was formed in October 2013 by the Ministry of Justice. It has since seized assets and institutions affiliated with key Brotherhood figures, including Morsi, Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, deputies Khairat Al-Shater, Rashad Bayoumi, Mahmoud Ezzat, and Gomaa Amin among others.
In January of this year, the committee froze the assets of 702 Brotherhood members and seizures have been ongoing through the year, with significant cases also in May and September.
The committee also placed 87 Brotherhood-affiliated schools under the administrative and financial supervision of the Education Ministry, as well as over 1,050 NGOs had their funds frozen who were believed to be associated with the movement.
