Ezzat Khamis, the head of the judicial committee to count and manage the funds of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), announced Wednesday the committee will execute court orders to seize properties affiliated with the dissolved MB’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).
According to a press statement by the committee published by state-media, two hospitals, six laboratories, and ten pharmacies were also seized and handed over to the Health Ministry after “it has been asserted that they were owned and run by members of the terrorist organization.”
FJP offices in Suez were also seized, according to coordination between the committee and the Suez Security Directorate. According to the committee’s Secretary-General Mohamed Yasser, they were handed over to the Finance Ministry.
Yasser said that “financial and administrative violations” were discovered during an unannounced inspection of schools that were seized in Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria.
According to the Ministry of Solidarity, more than 1,000 organisations and associations have been targeted following a Cairo court decision banning the MB’s activities and establishing a panel to confiscate the assets and property of MB-linked organisations in September 2013.
Kamal El-Sherif , undersecretary of the ministry of social solidarity, told OnTV channel on Wednesday morning that the committee had already seized 1,082 associations so far. The boards of directors were replaced at 120 organisations. Another 450 are currently being looked into.
“Some organisations were completely dissolved after their managers abandoned them, or we have not been successful in reaching their managements,” he said.
Meanwhile, some local media websites wrongfully reported that the FJP’s seized offices would be sold in auction. Daily News Egypt was unable to get confirmation from Ezzat.
According to the state-owned media agency MENA, however, Yasser denied the claims and explained that the committee’s job was only to deliver the properties to the Finance Ministry.
The FJP’s official website published a small article in which it accused the committee of “looting the Brotherhood’s money,” describing it as “terrorist”.
