CAIRO: An Egyptian court on Wednesday published the names of 296 people who have been added to the country’s terror list, including some with links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
The verdict, issued by Cairo’s criminal court on July 24, ruled that the 296 people be added to the national terrorist list for three years.
It said some of the defendants were found guilty of leading the Brotherhood, being members, funding the group, or harming the national economy and public security.
As per Egyptian law, those on the list are barred from leaving the country, their assets have been frozen and their passports canceled.
The list of names includes several Brotherhood leaders living outside the country. Among them are Mahmoud Ezzat, the group’s deputy supreme guide who fled Egypt in 2013, and Secretary-General Ibrahim Mounir, who lives in in London.
Both were found guilty of planning terror attacks in Egypt while abroad. Figures designated on the list and living abroad could be arrested upon their return.
In December 2013, the government listed the Brotherhood as a terrorist group, accusing it of involvement in a series of deadly attacks against the state.
“Every country that wages a war on terrorism has to undergo three main steps to paralyze a group: Leadership decapitation, cutting sources of financing, and hampering recruitment by labeling it a terrorist organization,” said Said Sadek, a Cairo-based political sociology professor.
Paul J. Sulliven, adjunct professor of security studies at Georgetown University, said: “Terrorists need to be contained by squeezing terror groups of their financing and other means of recruiting and retaining people.
“But containment isn’t enough. With the right education, economic and religious programs and efforts, Egypt could help rid itself of violent extremism and groups that may want to harm it.”