Detention of Malek renewed for 45 days

CAIRO - 28 July 2017: The Criminal Court of Cairo, headed by Counselor Hussein Kandil, decided Thursday to renew the detention of the Muslim Brotherhood businessman Hassan Malek and others for 45 days pending investigations on corruption charges against the state's economic and security.

According to the public prosecution Malek faces several charges: disrupting the state's national security, damaging economic resources, conspiring with the, now, fugitive leaders of the Brotherhood abroad to set a plan to find alternative funding sources for the terrorist group.

Malek has also been charged with allegedly plotting against the state's national economy, with the aim of harming it, by collecting foreign currency from the Egyptian market and smuggling it outside of the country.

The alleged action escalated the state's economic imbalance, creating a negative effect on dollar exchange rate in Egypt; the chain reaction thwarted the state’s efforts to achieve economic stability.

Malek has been in jail since October 2015 pending investigations. In 2014, the North Cairo Criminal Court upheld a decision by the prosecutor-general to freeze the assets of prominent Muslim Brotherhood leaders and all Malek's assets were frozen accordingly.
The Muslim Brother group has been classified a terrorist group by the Egyptian government since November 2013.