Egypt puts ex-football star Aboutrika back on terror list

Egypt puts ex-football star Aboutrika back on terror list

An Egyptian court has put a former football star on a 'terror list' for an additional five years over accusations he financed the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement.
1 min read
01 May, 2018
The ex-footballer denies ever having funded the Islamist movement [Getty]

An Egyptian court has put a former football star on a "terror list" for an additional five years over accusations Mohammed Aboutrika financed the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The Cairo Criminal Court ordered that Aboutrika remain on a government terror blacklist along with 1,529 other people, pro-government Youm7 reported on Monday.

Aboutrika has been on the list - which includes the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood - since January 2017.

Anyone on the list is subject to a travel ban, with their passport and assets liable to be frozen.

In 2015, a government committee froze the assets of the former player for Cairo-based football club al-Ahly and Egypt's national team, two years after he retired.

The ex-footballer now makes a living as a football pundit on the Qatar-based sports channel beIN Sports.

Aboutrika publicly endorsed the presidential bid of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi in 2012. He denies ever having funded the Islamist movement.

Morsi became the country's first democratically elected president, only for the army to oust him one year later and ban his movement.

Since Morsi's overthrow, a crackdown against the Brotherhood has left hundreds dead and thousands jailed.