Egypt court bans all Brotherhood activities

An Egyptian court has banned all activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, and ordered authorities to seize all of the group's assets, state television has reported.
The court also banned "any institution branching out from or belonging to the Brotherhood," the official MENA news agency reported, possibly restricting the Islamist movement's political arm the Freedom and Justice Party.
The ruling comes amid a crackdown on the Brotherhood and more than a month after hundreds of Islamist protesters died in a police operation to disperse their Cairo sit-ins, sparking a wave of nationwide violence.
The Cairo court "ruled to ban all activities by the Muslim Brotherhood organisation, the group emanating from it and its non-governmental organisation", official Egyptian news agency MENA reported. According to the verdict, any institution that co-operates with the Muslim Brotherhood, or is funded by it, would be banned as well.
That includes any organisations with Brotherhood members in senior leadership positions.
The ruling opens the door for a wider crackdown on the vast network of the Brotherhood, which includes social organisations that have been key for building the group's grassroots support and helping its election victories.
The verdict banned the group itself - including the official association it registered under earlier this year - as well as "any institution branching out of it or ... receiving financial support from it", according to the court ruling.
The judge at the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters also ordered the "confiscation of all the group's money, assets, and buildings" and said that an independent committee should be formed by the Cabinet to manage the money until final court orders are issued. The verdict can be appealed.
The Brotherhood was outlawed for most of its 85 years in existence. But after the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, it was allowed to work openly, formed a political party and rose to power in a string of post-Mubarak elections.
The Egyptian interior ministry said that it would not be seeking to use the ruling as grounds for cracking down further on anti-coup protests.
"The interior ministry is saying that there is no law to stop these protests from continuing, that the protests are under the umbrella of the anti-coup alliance.