Court upholds order to seize funds of 'Muslim Brotherhood's Amal Cell' elements

CAIRO - 4 August 2019: Cairo Criminal Court on Sunday upheld a prosecution order to sequestrate funds of 83 elements of 'MB's Amal Cell' as well as ordered that all 83 defendants be banned from travel.

Funds of 19 companies should also be sequestrated following the court ruling.

A probe by the prosecution had revealed that runaway leaders of the group had plotted a "hope plan" that was meant to unify their action and secure financial support from profits and revenues of some economic entities run by those leaders abroad.

The plot was to target State institutions and topple the regime as the country marked the anniversary of the June 30 revolution.

The defendants in the case No. 930 for the year 2019 are Moustafa Abdel Mo'ez, Osama al-Akabawi, Omar al-Shenety, HossamMo'nis, Zyad al-Elemy, HishamFouad, Hassan Barbari, Ahmed Tammam and Khaled Abu Shadi.

In June, security authorities ordered moving the defendants, including Qassem Abdel Kafi, to Cairo's Tura Prison, after the prosecution had ordered detaining the defendants for 15 days pending investigations.

Al-Amal Plan, according to a security statement, is a terrorist plot by Muslim Brotherhood leaders to target the state facilities institutions. The arrested figures are believed to be Muslim Brotherhood operatives.

According to a statement by the Interior Ministry, the scheme worked on uniting the Brotherhood group members, funding them from the revenues of some economic entities as they seek to topple the state and its institutions on the June 30 Uprising anniversary.

Information received by the National Security Service revealed that the plan is focused on establishing routes for the financial funds sent illegally from abroad by some hostile countries to work on carrying out violent acts across the country to disrupt celebrations of the revolution's anniversary, the statement said.

The statement also noted that the scheme aimed at launching inciting campaigns in the media and on the social media and satellite TV channels that are broadcast from outside the country. The statement identified some of the MB leaders who are involved in the plan including Mahmoud Hussein, Ali Bateekh, anchor MoatazMatar, Mohammed Nasser as well as the fugitive leader of El-Ghad Party AymanNour.

Acting on such information, security forces, in coordination with the High State Security Prosecution, targeted 19 economic entities which are secretly run by the MB leaders and seized documents, amounts of money and electronic devices that were in their possession, the statement added.