CAIRO: The Supreme State Security Prosecution sentenced Saturday Muslim Brotherhood figure and businessman Hassan Malik to 15 days pending investigations for “plotting to harm Egypt’s economy,” Youm7 reported.
The prosecution also ordered the arrest of other members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and to place their names on the wanted list for airport arrivals for “using their foreign exchange companies to smuggle foreign currency out of Egypt.”
Malek was arrested from his house in New Cairo’s upscale district of Tagammu el-Khames Friday. The police also arrested other four Brotherhood members for the said charges.
The arrested Brotherhood leaders were “conspiring to harm the national economy through collecting foreign currency and smuggling it to further destabilize the price of the dollar,” Egypt’s interior ministry said in a statement Friday.
On October 18, Egypt’s central bank depreciated the pound by 10 piasters to register 7.93 EGP against the U.S. dollar, after the country net foreign reserves plunged for a 3rd straight month by September-end.