Egypt courts list Hamas as terrorist group

An Egyptian court listed the Palestinian group Hamas as a terrorist organisation, judicial sources said on Saturday, part of a sustained crackdown on Islamists in the most populous Arab state.
 
In a separate case earlier in the day, a court sentenced the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's top leader Mohamed Badie to life in prison while other members received the death penalty.
 
Hamas is an offshoot of the Brotherhood, which the authorities have also declared a terrorist group in Egypt and have repressed systematically since the army ousted one of its leaders, Mohamed Morsi, from the presidency in 2013.
 
While a court ruled in January that Hamas' armed wing was a terrorist organisation, Saturday's broader ruling against the entire group has potentially greater consequences for the already strained relationship between Cairo and Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip on Egypt's border.
 
"The Egyptian court's decision to list the Hamas movement as a terror organisation is shocking and is dangerous, and it targets the Palestinian people and its factions of resistance," Hamas said in a statement after the ruling.
 
"It will have no influence on the Hamas movement," Hamas said.
 
After the January decision against Hamas' Qassem Brigades, a source close to the armed wing signalled the group would no longer accept Egypt as a broker between it and Israel.
 
Cairo has for many years played a central role in engineering ceasefires between Israel and Hamas, including a truce reached between the sides in August that ended a 50-day Gaza war.
 
A spokesman for the Egyptian government declined to say what actions the government would take to enforce the ruling.
 
"When a final judgment is issued, we will discuss this," Hossam al-Qawish said.
         

 

REUTERS