Malek’s arrest renewed for 45 days

CAIRO – 10 September 2017: Giza’s Criminal Court decided on Sunday to renew the detention of the Muslim Brotherhood businessman Hassan Malek and three others for 45 days pending investigations over charges of harming Egypt’s security and economy.

Prosecution had accused Malek of committing several crimes including destabilizing the country’s national security and damaging its 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 the 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 Brotherhood leaders and all Malek's assets were frozen accordingly.

The Muslim Brotherhood group has been classified as a terrorist group by the Egyptian government since November 2013.