Egypt’s parliament approved on April 15 a draft law to allow the seizure and assessment of funds of terrorist groups. On April 21, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi signed it as Law No. 22 of 2018.

The new legislation is part of government efforts to crack down on terrorism and make economic use of the funds of the Muslim Brotherhood, designated a terrorist group by the Egyptian government in 2013. The law applies to all designated terrorist groups, but it is mainly aimed at the Muslim Brotherhood and active business interests in Egypt.

The group and its members have invested heavily in hospitals, schools, shopping malls and other real estate, in addition to both agricultural and desert lands, investment companies and online news platforms. The Egyptian government has been seizing these funds since 2014 without any legal structure to manage the process.

In 2013, the Egyptian government labeled the Brotherhood a terror group following the ousting of former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. The next year, the government formed a committee to evaluate the activities and oversee the confiscation of funds of the group and its affiliates.