Court upholds order freezing assets of Egypt’s Islamist leaders

CAIRO -- Financial assets of senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group driven from power in a July 3 coup, will remain frozen, a Cairo court ruled on Tuesday, according to the state news agency.

The Cairo Criminal Court upheld a previous order to “temporarily� freeze the assets of the organization’s top officials, including spiritual leader Mohamed Badie and his deputies, the report said. Most of the Brotherhood’s leadership is in jail, as are hundreds of rank-and-file followers.

Human rights groups have sharply criticized conditions under which the detainees are being held and say many prisoners have been denied basic rights.

The Brotherhood-backed Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president, has been held by the military at an undisclosed location since the army drove him from power. He is facing an array of legal accusations, including some murder-related charges.

The interim government that took over running the country has shown no sign of easing the pressure on the Brotherhood. Last week, Morsi was given a further 30 days of detention -- an announcement that came late Friday, after his supporters held scattered protests at several locations demanding his reinstatement.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters died in a violent breakup of protest camps by Egyptian security forces in mid-August. Authorities have since kept a tight grip on the capital, and a curfew remains in effect, together with a nationwide state of emergency, which gives the authorities wide-ranging powers.

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