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Court Postpones Egypt Brotherhood Dissolution Case to September

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An Egyptian court on Tuesday postponed consideration of a lawsuit calling for the dissolution of the country’s largest and most influential Islamic political force, the Muslim Brotherhood, to September 4, Egypt’s al-Ahram newspaper reported.

An Egyptian court on Tuesday postponed consideration of a lawsuit calling for the dissolution of the country’s largest and most influential Islamic political force, the Muslim Brotherhood, to September 4, Egypt’s al-Ahram newspaper reported.

Lawyer Shehata Mohamed Shehata filed the lawsuit with the High Administrative Court in Cairo, claiming the Islamic group has illegally carried out both political and social activities for decades despite being officially banned, the newspaper said.

Shehata also says the group has failed to abide by a 2002 law regulating the operation of non-governmental organizations, which forbids such groups functioning as religion-based political parties, the report said.

The lawyer, who heads the Egyptian Centre for Integrity and Transparency, has called for the group, and its recently created Freedom and Justice Party, to be dissolved as a punishment for violating the laws.

The court was to consider the case on Tuesday, the day after Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Mursi, claimed victory in the presidential race.

The Muslim Brotherhood was formally banned in Egypt from 1954, when it attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and was only legalized following the 2011 revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Despite the official ban, the Egyptian government has often turned the blind eye to the group’s continuing activities, especially since the 1970s.

The group has dominated the country’s parliament following its landslide victory in recent parliamentary elections. But the legislature was dissolved on Sunday, when the ruling Supreme Military Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) endorsed last week’s ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court that the parliamentary vote was unconstitutional.

The Muslim Brotherhood declared on Monday that its presidential candidate, Mursi, won 52 percent of the vote in last weekend’s presidential race against Ahmed Shafiq, who was prime minister under Mubarak. Official results of the vote are due for release on Thursday.

 

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