Egyptian court bans Hamas amid crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood
Baku, March 6 (AZERTAC). A court in Cairo has banned the hardline Palestinian Islamist group Hamas - a movement closely bound to the Muslim Brotherhood - from working within Egyptian borders.
The judicial order came on Tuesday, formalising the rift between the Egyptian government and the militant group that governs the neighbouring Gaza Strip.
An offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas has frequently been a secondary target of a crackdown on the Brotherhood since the latter's overthrow last July.
Hamas officials have been accused of espionage, and fomenting militancy in Egypt's Sinai peninsula - charges Hamas denies.
Hamas was ordered to freeze its activities in Egypt after a private individual brought a complaint. "The court has ordered the banning of Hamas's work and activities in Egypt," a judge told Reuters, speaking anonymously.
Egypt's justice ministry refused to comment on the ban, while the foreign ministry said the news seemed to be true, but could provide no further details.
Hamas and Egypt formed a tight alliance during the tenure of the ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, largely due to Hamas's historic links to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. Senior Hamas officials travelled to Cairo to hold leadership ballots in early 2013.
But after Morsi was overthrown last July, the interim leadership that unseated him has sought to clamp down on anyone with any connection to his presidency - arresting thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, and severing ties with Hamas.
The new Egyptian regime sees Hamas as a threat to national security. They claim that the Palestinian group, from its vantage point in the Gaza Strip, has supported Islamist militants based in Sinai who have waged an insurgency against Egyptian police and soldiers since Morsi's removal. Hamas has consistently denied the charges. But according to Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha centre, Sinai's main militant group - Ansar Beyt al-Maqdis (ABM) - has at least some links to the Gaza-based militants.
The Mujahideen Shura Council, which is based in Gaza but has a limited operational presence in the Sinai, "almost certainly maintains relations with ABM," Lister told the Guardian in January.
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