EGYPT’S PM BANS PRO-MORSI ALLIANCE

Cairo, 23 Dhulhijja 1435/18 October 2014 (MINA) – Egypt’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab issued a decree on Wednesday to ban the pro Morsi National Alliance to Support Legitimacy and its activities in Egypt.

In accordance with a court order from last month to ban the anti-government Islamist coalition, they also banned the Islamist Istiqlal Party, was based on a lawsuit filed by a former head of Egypt’s state security court, Judge Amr Abdel-Rizk, Ahram online quote by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Earlier the same month, the Court for Urgent Matters rejected a previous lawsuit to ban the NASL, arguing that the case was out of the court’s jurisdiction.

Khaled Said, the official spokesman of the NASL, told Turkish news agency Anadolu the court ruling is illegal and unfair, and insisted the alliance will continue its peaceful activities.

A lawyer for the Istiqlal Party, Ashraf Omran, told Anadolu that the NASL had filed an appeal against the court ruling on Tuesday.

The NASL was formed in July 2013 to protest against the ouster of first freely elected president Mohamed Morsi that same month.

Among the parties that have joined the coalition are the political arms of the Brotherhood, the Freedom and Justice Party, and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, the Building and Development Party, along with the Watan Party, the Istiqlal Party and the Wasat Party.

The Wasat Party, the most prominent party in the coalition, announced in August that it was pulling out of the NASL in hopes of being part of a wider political umbrella. The next month, the Salafist Watan Party also withdrew feared the government’s crackdown.

The ban on the coalition comes after the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, was dissolved by court order in August. The government declared the Brotherhood itself “a terrorist organization” in December of last year.(T/R04/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)