Egypt seizes Brotherhood-linked retail outlets

CAIRO — Egyptian authorities seized Sunday two retail outlets owned by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has faced a relentless crackdown since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year.

The businesses targeted were the Seoudi supermarket chain and Zad department store, respectively owned by Abdel Rahman Seoudi and Khairat Al Shater — both leaders of the blacklisted Brotherhood.

“Security forces are implementing the law,” Cairo’s police chief, Brigadier General Ali Al Demerdash, said in relation to the moves.

“A committee formed in accordance with a court ruling decided to seize Zad, which is owned by Khairat Al Shater, and Seoudi, which is owned by Abdel Rahman Seoudi, because the two leaders are financing the Muslim Brotherhood,” he told reporters.

A court in September banned the Muslim Brotherhood from operating and ordered its assets seized. It also prohibited any institution branching out from or belonging to the Islamist movement.

Shater, the Brotherhood’s number two who headed its financial affairs, is behind bars and on trial for a range of charges, some of them punishable by death.

He was arrested along with Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie following the ouster of Morsi in July 2013.

Seoudi is a wealthy businessman but little is known about his role in the Muslim Brotherhood.

The movement, which swept all elections since the fall of strongman Hosni Mubarak up to the election of Morsi in June 2012, was blacklisted in December as a “terrorist group” by the military-installed authorities.