Egypt’s Court of Cassation has canceled the inclusion of ex-soccer star Mohamed Aboutrika and more than 1,500 people on “terrorist” lists established because of their alleged links to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, said a lawyer on Saturday. “The Court of Cassation heard our pleadings and annulled the judgment concerning the registration of our clients as terrorists,” Khaled Ali, a human rights lawyer, told AFP.
“The decision of the criminal court is annulled and a new chamber will be appointed to re-examine the case,” he added.
In January 2017, a criminal court in Cairo decided to include the name of the player, double African champion with Egypt in 2006 and 2008 and named best African player of the year four times, on the lists of “terrorists”, accusing him of financing the Muslim Brotherhood, classified at the end of 2013 as a “terrorist organization” in Egypt.
The player publicly supported Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi in the 2012 presidential election. The first democratically elected president in Egypt, he was deposed in 2013 by the army led at the time by General Abdel-Fattah al- Sissi today head of state.
Ban on leaving the territory
In 2021, the Court of Cassation confirmed the extension for two years of the registration of 1,529 people on these lists, including Mohamed Aboutrika and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and their children.
According to the anti-terrorism law adopted in 2015, any person suspected of “terrorism” is prohibited from leaving the country, their passport is withdrawn and their assets frozen. Still very popular in his country, Mohamed Aboutrika, 45, is currently in Qatar where he comments on football matches for the beIN Sports channel.
