Egypt court bans Muslim Brotherhood

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was banned from carrying out any activities in the country and its assets confiscated by a court today, in a body blow to Islamists who have been vehemently protesting President Mohammed Morsi's ouster by the powerful army.
"The court bans the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation and its non-governmental organisation and all the activities that it participates in and any organisation derived from it," said the presiding judge Mohammed al-Sayed.
The court also ordered the interim government to seize the Brotherhood's funds and form a panel to administer its frozen assets until any appeal has been heard.

The administrative court in Cairo gave the ruling after it had been asked to review the Islamist group's status as a non-governmental organisation.
The lawsuit was filed by the leftist Tagammu Party, Ahram Online reported.
The 85-year-old Islamist movement was banned by Egypt's military rulers in 1954, but registered itself as an NGO in March 2013 in response to a court case brought 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.

On September 2 this year, Egypt's State Commissioners Authority, a body that advises the government on legal issues, recommended the Brotherhood's dissolution after claims circulated of its links to armed militias.
The authority's recommendations, which are non-binding, were made in accordance with an Egyptian law that prohibits non-government organisations and institutions from forming paramilitary groups.
Egyptian authorities launched a crackdown against the group following the ouster of president Morsi, who hails from the group, by the military on July 3 after mass protests against him and the group.