Cairo: An Egyptian court on Tuesday postponed until September hearing two separate cases to dissolve the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party. The cases will be heard on September 1 and 4 respectively, said judicial sources.
The Administrative Court postponed the hearings in response to a request from the Islamist group’s lawyers to allow them time to examine the documents of the cases, added the sources.
Lawyers Mohammad Zaki and Shehata Mohammad, who have filed the cases, say the Muslim Brotherhood is illegal for having been officially banned since 1954.
They request the court to disband the 84-year-old group and confiscate its offices and assets. “The Private Associations Law, issued on July 5, 2002, obliges all associations, including the Muslim Brotherhood, to readjust themselves to comply with the law, including disclosing sources of financing,” said the litigants. “The Brotherhood has failed to do this.”
They argued that licensing the group’s political party, after a popular revolt that removed Hosni Mubarak from power in February last year, violated the constitution, which bans the creation of political parties on religious grounds.
“The Brotherhood’s status is legal,” said Abdul Moneim Abdul Maqsud, the group’s lawyer. “The Brotherhood is an Islamic group that is not subjected to the Private Association Law,” he added.
The cases were filed days before the Muslim Brotherhood claimed that its candidate Mohammad Mursi had won Egypt’s first presidential election since Mubarak’s removal.
Mursi’s campaign officials on Tuesday reiterated claims about his victory, saying final results have given him 52 per cent of votes against 48 per cent for his Mubarak-era rival Ahmad Shafiq. The results will be officially announced on Thursday.
Egypt’s highest court last week dissolved the lower house of parliament where the Muslim Brotherhood held nearly half of the seats.
