Egypt upholds cancellation of Aboutrika ’s asset freeze

An Egyptian administrative court upheld on Tuesday a judicial verdict of nullification the renowned football player Mohamed Aboutrika’s assets freeze, according to a judicial source.

The source told Anadolu Agency, preferring anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media, that the State Council’s Administrative Court accepted an appeal filed by Aboutrika , which entails carrying out the verdict he received last June.

Aboutrika had filed a challenge at the court to force the committee tasked with freezing assets of the Muslim Brotherhood to carry out the verdict he received earlier and respect provisions of the constitution.

Mohamed Othman, Aboutrika’s lawyer, earlier said in remarks that the committee had abstained from carrying out the verdict, claiming it will file a challenge at the Court of Urgent Matters to suspend the State Council’s verdict, which he said violates the law.

He added that he would submit a copy of the ruling to Brotherhood Funds Inventory Committee (governmental) and the central bank to lift the freeze on Aboutrika’s assets.

Last July, the State Council, which represents the government, earlier filed a challenge against the Administrative Court verdict which cancelled the assets freeze decision. However, the Administrative Court approved Aboutrika’s challenge and rules to cancel the assets freeze.

The court’s ruling on Tuesday is an affirmation to the other preceded verdict which was issued last June.  It is a legal action to speed up the verdict’s implementation regardless of the appeal submitted.

In April 2015, the committee tasked with counting the Muslim Brotherhood’s assets ordered freezing the assets of Aboutrika and his tourist company, as well as dismissing him from the board of a company that he owned in accordance with a judicial verdict that ordered freezing the assets of his company, according to Egypt Independent.

The committee said that “his partner is actually called Anas Mohamed Omar al-Qady, who is a jailed Brotherhood member.”

In recent years, Aboutrika had been regarded as one of the most prominent players of the Egyptian national football team. He has notably contributed to many international and local titles, granted to the Egyptian team and Al-Ahli club team, before he resigned in December 2013.

The committee was originally formed by a decision from the justice minister in the wake of a verdict by the Court of Urgent Matters in September of 2013, which banned the activities of the international group of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, as well as its affiliated group locally, the Muslim Brotherhood NGO and all associations affiliated to it, established or funded by the group.