Egypt bans Hamas, closes its offices pending court case

From Ahram Online:

The Cairo Court for Urgent Matters has banned all activities in Egypt by Hamas and ordered the closure of its offices in Cairo pending a court verdict in an espionage case involving ousted president Mohamed Morsi and members of the Islamist Palestinian group.

Several Hamas officials condemned the ruling. "The decision harms the image of Egypt and its role towards the Palestinian cause. It reflects a form of standing against Palestinian resistance," Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Hamas told Reuters.

Hamas -- the Palestinian Islamist Resistance Movement -- is an ideological offshoot of the now-banned Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. It was founded in 1987 at the height of the first Palestinian intifada against Israel.

The relationship between the group, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2006, and the Egyptian authorities has soured since the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Egyptian officials have accused Hamas of providing support to Islamic militants who have increased their fatal attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula since Morsi's ouster.

Hamas has repeatedly denied any such involvement.

Shortly after the Egyptian government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group in December 2013, an Egyptian lawyer, Samir Sabry, filed a legal complaint with the court asking it to declare Hamas a terrorist organisation.

"Hamas originated in Palestine as an Islamic resistance movement but turned into a terrorist organization," Sabry argued in his pleading.

Hamas responded by saying that "The fact that the Egyptian judiciary accepted this lawsuit calling Hamas a "terrorist" organization gives a free service to the Zionist occupation that lurks in Palestine and its people and our Arab and Islamic countries."