CAIRO
Egypt said Sunday that it asked several western states to confiscate the funds of the members of an opposition group founded by 30 Egyptian figures based overseas.
Yasser Abul-Fotouh, the secretary-general of a government panel tasked with managing the seized funds of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, said the panel had addressed six governments to seize the funds of 30 members of what is called the "Egyptian Revolutionary Council."
"Over the past few days, the committee contacted the United States and the governments of five European states to confiscate the funds of 30 council members who live in these states," Abul-Fotouh said in remarks to the press, noting that the 30 figures were also members of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Abdel-Mawgoud al-Dardiri, a member of the Council, meanwhile, slammed the panel for making the aforementioned request.
"We have not learned about any western government that responded to the government's absurd request," al-Dardiri, who is based in London, told The Anadolu Agency.
"Western countries respect the rights of their residents," he added, noting that a court order was needed for western governments to fulfill the demand of the Egyptian panel.
Two months ago, the panel announced it had confiscated the local assets of the council's members.
The Egyptian Revolutionary Council was formed by a group of Egyptians living in exile in Turkish capital Istanbul last summer.
Its members have been opposing the involvement of the military in politics since the 2013 military ouster of Mohamed Morsi, the Brotherhood leader who became Egypt's first freely elected president in 2012.
Since it was founded in late 2013, the government panel has confiscated the funds of dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members.
The panel's creation came in line with a court order banning the activities of the decades-old Brotherhood.
