CAIRO
Egypt's Attorney-General Hesham Barakat on Sunday included top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood group Mohamed Badie in a newly-minted national terrorism list.
Sixteen other Brotherhood leaders were included in the same list in the light of Egypt's recently-approved Terrorist Entities Law, according to state television.
The television said the Brotherhood leaders included the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Mahdi Akef and the head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party Saad al-Katatni, a former parliament speaker.
The law, which was approved by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in February, assigns the country's top prosecutor with the mission of preparing a list of terrorist entities.
According to the law, an entity is designated as "terrorist" when the courts issue a ruling against them proving this charge.
This is the first time the Attorney-General includes any names in the list since the approval of the law in February.
The Brotherhood was designated as a "terrorist" organization late in 2013. The movement came under a heavy crackdown from Egyptian authorities soon after the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi – a Brotherhood leader himself.
Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected leader, was ousted by the military in July 2013 – after only one year in office – following protests against his presidency.
He currently faces separate trials on multiple criminal charges, including alleged espionage and jailbreak.
