Egypt has decided to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood as a registered non-governmental organization, Reuters reported the state-run Al-Akhbar newspaper as saying on Friday.
“The minister’s decision has in fact been issued but it will be announced at the start of next week in a press conference,” Al-Akhbar quoted Hany Mahana, spokesman for the minister of social solidarity, as saying.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s NGO was formally registered in March, in response to a lawsuit that argued the movement had no legal status.
The Brotherhood was founded in 1928 and was formally dissolved by Egypt’s army rulers in 1954.
In July, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammad Mursi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, was overthrown in response to mass protests.
The new authorities have imposed a state of emergency and nightly curfews while Mursi and most of the Brotherhood’s leaders have been arrested.
Al Arabiya