Requests to register groups as 'Muslim Brotherhood' declined, says ministry lawyer

Ahram Online, Wednesday 3 Oct 2012

Attempting to force the Muslim Brotherhood to settle its legal status, many have attempted to register the name legally. All such requests have been refused, says Mohamed El-Demerdash

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File photo: Egyptian supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, Mohammed Morsi, celebrate next to a giant poster of him at his campaign headquarters in Cairo (Photo: AP)

All requests filed so far to legally register organisations under the name "the Muslim Brotherhood" have been found insufficient, requiring further documents, said Mohamed El-Demerdash, deputy head of the State Council and legal consultant of Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs, to the Middle East News Agency (MENA) Wednesday.

"The fact that some citizens seek to register an organization under the title 'the Muslim Brotherhood,' in order to pressure the Islamist group (the Muslim Brotherhood) to settle its legal status is something that does not concern the ministry," El-Demerdash told MENA, referring to the mass of requests filed by people seeking to establish an organisation with the same name as the Islamist group.

Many political figures have been demanding that the Brotherhood legalise its status and register the organisation in order for the state to be able to monitor its funding and activities, like any other group in Egypt.

El-Demerdash said the name had been reserved for the Islamist group since 1928. El-Demerdash further explained that the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) had demanded that the Ministry of Social Affairs send a memo detailing the Brotherhood's legal status, adding that the ministry is still studying the case.

The SAC is currently considering a legal case against the Muslim Brotherhood demanding its dissolution based on the argument that the organisation has no legal status. The next hearing is due 9 October.  

 

 

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