Cairo/ Jeddah: Egypt’s cabinet on Tuesday ordered authorities to remove the Muslim Brotherhood from the list of approved non-governmental organisations following a judicial order, state media reported.
The move comes after an Egyptian court last month banned the Muslim Brotherhood from operating and ordered its assets seized, amid a massive crackdown on the group following the military ouster of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi.
In its September 23 ruling, the court had also banned “any institution branching out from or belonging to the Brotherhood”.
Mursi was Egypt’s first democratically elected president but his turbulent one year rule came to an abrupt end when the military heeded the call of millions of Egyptians to oust him on July 3.
His supporters have since taken to the streets to denounce what they say is a violation of democratic principles.
But the army-installed authorities have pressed ahead with a massive campaign which has seen at least 1,000 Muslim Brotherhood supporters killed and around 2,000 jailed, including the top leadership.
Mursi, who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, has been detained at an unknown location since his ouster.
Egypt has been gripped by unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, but violence has sharply increased since Morsi was deposed.
On Sunday, at least 57 people were killed in clashes between security forces and Mursi supporters and nearly 400 were injured.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s interim president Adly Mansour won fresh support from King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz for his country’s fight against “terrorism” as he on Tuesday wound up a trip to Saudi Arabia, official news agency SPA said.
Mansour arrived on Monday in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on his first official trip abroad since he replaced the Islamist Mohammad Mursi after the army deposed him on July 3.
King Abdullah, who was the first leader to welcome Mursi’s ouster, affirmed the kingdom’s support to Egypt against “terrorism, deviance, and sedition, and against whoever tries to interfere in Egypt’s internal affairs,” SPA quoted him as saying.
Saudi Arabia had long seen Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood as a threat and along with other Gulf states — excluding Qatar which supports the movement — quickly pledged financial aid to Egypt’s new military-installed authorities.
Mansour said he had come to Saudi Arabia to “thank” the monarch.
“Visiting the kingdom was a must, as I had to thank the custodian of the two holy mosques [King Abdullah] personally on his supportive stances that comforted the Egyptians,” Mansour told the Saudi daily Asharq Al Awsat.
King Abdullah was the first head of state to congratulate Mansour, doing so just hours after his appointment in July.
Riyadh subsequently announced an aid package of $5 billion (Dh18 billion) to Egypt.
The Saudi monarch in August pledged his country’s support to Egypt’s fight on “terrorism”, saying it was the military-installed government’s “legitimate right”.
Egypt’s authorities had said they were confronting a “malicious terror plot” by Islamists.
