Egypt court overturns freeze of football star’s assets

An Egyptian court on Tuesday overturned a freeze on the assets of former football star Mohamed Aboutrika, imposed on suspicions he financed the banned Muslim Brotherhood, a judge says.

In 2015 a government committee blocked the assets of the former player for Cairo-based club Al-Ahly and Egypt’s national team, two years after he retired.

On Tuesday an administrative court reversed the decision, one of the judges, who did not want to be named, tells AFP.

Aboutrika, one of the most successful African footballers of his generation, had publicly endorsed the presidential bid of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi in 2012.

Morsi went on to become Egypt’s first democratically elected president, only for the army to oust him one year later and ban the Brotherhood as a “terrorist” organisation.

Aboutrika’s lawyer, Mohamed Osmane, confirms the decision, saying the freeze had included “all of his assets, bank accounts, properties”.

— AFP