Secret treasury: Plan to revive Brotherhood's activity in Egypt revealed
The Egyptian security forces spare
no effort in unveiling the Brotherhood’s black economy and thwarting attempts
to revive the group through its arms responsible for the flow of money to its
leaders. On Thursday, September 30, Egypt’s Ministry of the Interior announced
the seizure of a residential apartment owned by Brotherhood member Yahya Mahran
in a suburb of Giza Governorate, containing a secret room used as a safe for
money.
According to a statement by the
Ministry of Interior, preliminary investigations revealed that Mahran played a
prominent role in that scheme as one of the main arms of imprisoned Brotherhood
leader Safwan Thabet, as the latter assigned him to exploit his companies in
transfers and concealment of the organization’s funds and to invest its returns
for the benefit of the terrorist group’s activities, in an attempt to
circumvent the legal restraint procedures taken against the economic entities
owned by the organization.
After the arrest procedures and the
raid of the aforementioned apartment, the accused was charged with several
crimes related to committing crimes to disturb the security of the country and
undermine its economic foundations, in addition to agreeing with Brotherhood
leaders who fled abroad to hold several meetings during which they agreed to
develop a plan to find ways and alternatives to preserve the organization’s
sources of financing within the framework of a scheme aimed at harming the
national economy of the country by accumulating foreign currencies, smuggling
them outside the country and working to escalate the instability of the dollar
exchange rate in order to abort the efforts made by the state to achieve
economic stability.
Mahran faces several charges,
including joining the terrorist Brotherhood and providing it with funds to
achieve its goal of changing the regime by force, attacking the armed forces,
police and public facilities, harming the country's national economy, and financing
its activities with millions of pounds by pumping money into the accounts of
the group’s leaders, in addition to providing in-kind aid worth millions of
pounds.
In turn, Amr Farouk, a researcher in
the affairs of Islamist movements, said that the involvement of businessmen
affiliated with the Brotherhood in pumping funds to support the terrorist
group’s organizational bases and its project to target the army and police
forces comes in implementation of the theory of responding to aggression
developed by late Brotherhood theorist Sayyid Qutb, which legitimizes the
demolition of state institutions.
In a statement to the Reference,
Farouk pointed out that the files related to hidden sources of funding began to
unfold before the Egyptian security authorities since the arrest of Brotherhood
leader Mahmoud Ezzat last August, especially since he was the actual controller
of the organization's financial and administrative joints.
Farouk added that companies are the
most important pillars that the Brotherhood relies on to finance their
suspicious activities. According to the book “The Economics of the Brotherhood
in Egypt and the World”, the profits of internal projects in Egypt, especially
the fields of trade, exchange, schools and hospitals, aid and assistance from
associations in some countries and international associations, and the profits
of projects abroad, including trade, banks and the stock market, are the most
important components of the group’s financing.
