Cairo - Egyptian authorities have this week frozen the assets of 18 companies they believe to be affiliated with the banned Muslim Brotherhood, sources told Ahram Online. The list of companies has not yet been announced, but the companies included are reportedly Radio Shack, Mobile Shop, Computer Shop, Delta RS Trading, CompuMe Egypt Information Technology, Delta Telecom, and Misr Al-Arabia news website. The sources said that the decision was issued by an Egyptian governmental committee tasked with appraising and seizing the funds of members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group last January and was implemented by judicial order on Sunday. The Central Bank and the General Investment Authority were informed of the judicial order to confiscate all liquid, movable and real estate assets owned by the entities and companies, according to a source. The committee said last week that it had confiscated the assets of 16 Brotherhood members. Among those whose assets were confiscated is Cairo Portal Company for Publishing and Distribution, as well as Alef bookstores, which has 37 branches across the country. The committee also announced that it confiscated the assets of the children of Brotherhood spiritual leader Sheikh Youssef El-Qaradawi, who currently resides in Qatar. In May 2017, the committee confiscated the funds 11 members of the family of leading Brotherhood figure and businessman Hassan Malek, including the funds of his five children. Last December, the government committee announced that it had frozen the assets of a number of businessmen including Mostafa Sakr, the publisher of the English-language newspaper Daily News Egypt and the Arabic-language Borsa News. In November 2016, the committee said it had seized the assets of more than 1,370 people and 1,125 companies and NGOs since March 2014, with a total of at least $34 million in seized Brotherhood assets. The Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian government in November 2013. The asset committee was established in 2014 and is headed by Mohamed Yasser Abo El-Fotoh.
