On Monday, an Egyptian court outlawed any and all activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country and ordered that the group’s assets to be frozen and seized by the government. “The court bans the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood organization and its non-governmental organization and all the activities that it participates in and any organization derived from it,” the judge said.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the party of the recently ousted President Mohamed Morsi, has been under increasing pressure from the military-backed government. Morsi was elected in the country’s first free elections, in 2012, following the Brotherhood’s winning a plurality in the Egyptian parliament. After the July coup that pushed Morsi out of power, military forces killed hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and arrested thousands more.
The Brotherhood was outlawed by Egypt’s President Nasser in the 1950s, a ban that stood until 2011, though the government had allowed it to be an increasingly active political force.