CAIRO
The United Kingdom and Canada have thus far not responded to several requests by the Egyptian government to conduct a probe on the Muslim Brotherhood group on their respective territories, a senior official at the Egyptian Justice Ministry said on Sunday.
"Canada and Britain, who initially expressed interest to join Egyptian authorities in investigating the Brotherhood's involvement in terrorism cases inside and outside Egypt have not responded to any of our requests for cooperation," the official, speaking anonymously, told Anadolu Agency.
The no-response signals that the U.K. and Canada have declined to cooperate with Egypt on the investigations, according to international customs, he said.
The source likened the backtrack to dissatisfaction with a number of internationally-decried court verdicts handing down mass death sentences to Muslim Brotherhood members on violence-related charges and imprisoning a handful of foreign reporters working for the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera news network for "aiding" the outlawed Islamist group.
In late March, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced he has ordered a review into the "ideology and activities" of the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain with the ostensible aim of "understanding" the movement and its impact on British national security.
A week later, a public petition signed by an undisclosed number of Canadian citizens was submitted by parliament to the Canadian government, demanding the latter label the Brotherhood as a "terrorist organization," a move similarly taken by the military-backed Egyptian government last December.
The Egyptian government has launched a sustained deadly crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood following last July's military ouster of Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected president who hails from the decades-old Islamist group.
The Egyptian government blames the Brotherhood for a spate of bomb attacks mostly targeting security officials since Morsi's ouster – an accusation the Brotherhood has repeatedly denied.
By Gawdat Eid
www.aa.com.tr/en
