Hearing on appeals to remove Trika from terror list adjourned

CAIRO – 18 April 2018: Cairo's Court of Cassation adjourned hearing on appeals challenging last July's Criminal Court decision to place former footballer and a number of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated members on the terror list to July 2, 2018.

In January 2017, the Cairo Criminal Court placed 1,500 defendants, affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, on the country’s terror list, including Mohammed Abou Trika and chairman of Egypt’s leading dairy products and beverage manufacturer Safwat Thabet, who were charged with funneling funds to the outlawed group.

Former Mubarak-era Parliament Speaker, Fathi Soror, who represents one of the defendants in the above-mentioned case, demanded the Cassation Court to overturn the Criminal Court’s “ill-founded” decision, which was based on procedural grounds, not on evidence-based investigations, as he put it during his address to the court.

Out of 1,538 blacklisted defendants, 1,254 defendants appealed the decision to the Court of Cassation, including former international player Abu Trika who submitted several appeals to overturn the Court’s ruling.

According to Trika’s appeal, which was filed in July 2017, the Criminal Court’s decision was issued without prior investigations with the retired player, in violation of his constitutional right to a fair trial.

“The decision of the Ministerial Committee to manage the funds of the Muslim Brotherhood and to freeze the liquid, movable and real estate assets of the former player was based on allegations, not investigations,” the appeal explained.

During his address in court lawyer of Trika, Mohamed Othman, stated that there are four names that were found to be duplicated on the terror list, meaning that the Criminal Court has not yet examined the case’s papers.

In its consultative report, the prosecution recommended the referral of the case to the Cairo Criminal Court, in order to reconsider the matter and handle the appeals from the defendants, rather than scrap the case altogether.

However, the prosecution excluded five defendants from the recommendation; Eman, Ahmed and Al-Motaz Sabry, as well as Hoda Rizk, who are the owners of al-Waha company for educational services, should remain on the terror list for funding the outlawed group.

For their part, Sorour and lawyer of ex-Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi, Mohamed Selim Al Awa, demanded the suspension of the Criminal Court’s ruling and not to refer the case again to said court.


Egypt designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group in 2014.