The State Council Administrative Court on Tuesday decided to postpone a lawsuit that demands the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities be frozen for failing to obtain a license from the Insurance and Social Affairs Ministry, as stipulated in the NGOs law.
The lawsuit made by lawyer Shehata Mohamed Shehata, director of the Arab Center for Integrity and Transparency, also calls for shutting down the Brotherhood’s offices nationwide, freezing its bank accounts and removing slogans using its name.
During the first session on the case Tuesday, Shehata said questions have surfaced over the group’s legitimacy, especially after its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, won nearly 47 percent of seats in the People’s Assembly.
Shortly before the breakout of the 25 January revolution, the group was still referred to as a banned organization, he said.
In the lawsuit, Shehata quoted a Brotherhood lawyer who previously said the group does not enjoy any legal basis and had failed to adapt its legal existence to the NGOs law.
Shehata demanded that the Brotherhood show any document attesting to its legality so as to be equal with other NGOs raided late last year by Egyptian security forces over charges of illegal funding.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
