An Egyptian court has added
former football star Mohamed
Aboutrika to the authorities’
terror list, his lawyer said
Tuesday, based on suspicions
he financed the banned
Muslim Brotherhood.
In 2015 a government
committee froze the assets of
the former player for Cairo-
based club Al-Ahly and Egypt’s
national team, two years after
he retired.
The government accuses him
of financing the Muslim
Brotherhood, which was
classified as a terrorist
organisation at the end of
2013.
According to an anti-terror law
imposed in 2015 by President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, anyone on
the country’s terror list is
subject to a travel ban, with
their passport and assets
liable to be frozen.
Aboutrika, one of the most
successful African footballers
of his generation, had publicly
endorsed the presidential bid
of the Muslim Brotherhood’s
Mohamed Morsi in 2012.
Morsi went on to become
Egypt’s first democratically
elected president, only for the
army to oust him one year
later and ban the Brotherhood.
Aboutrika’s lawyer Mohamed
Osman said that the court’s
decision was “contrary to the
law” saying the retired player
“has not been convicted or
formally notified of any of the
charges against him.”
“We will appeal this decision,”
he said, adding that “if he is
added to the list there will be
many legal consequences,
notably the travel ban.”
The freeze on Aboutrika assets
is still in force, despite two
court orders that it be lifted,
Osman added.
In an interview with state-run
Al-Ahram newspaper in May
2015, Aboutrika denied that his
company — or any of his
partners — had ever funded
the Islamist movement.
Since Morsi’s overthrow, a
police crackdown against the
Brotherhood has left hundreds
dead and thousands jailed.
Aboutrika retired in 2013, and
the 37-year-old has since
avoided expressing his
political views publicly.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/01/egyptian-football-star-aboutrika-placed-terror-list/

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