Egypt’s Brotherhood fights back from London flat

A cramped flat above a disused kebab shop in a north London suburb has become an unlikely base for the Muslim Brotherhood’s fightback against Egypt’s interim government, reported The Telegraph.

In Cairo, the group has been branded a terrorist organization and has had its assets confiscated and its leaders arrested after Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammad Mursi was ousted from the presidency on July 3.

Mursi was arrested and faces trial for alleged treason, along with a handful of other Brotherhood officials charged with inciting violence in the country.

Many of the senior figures that remain have fled into exile and some have chosen London as a base from which to attempt to rebuild the organization.

The London office, in the suburb of Cricklewood, is run by the relatives of two of Mursi’s arrested aides. One of the relatives, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they viewed London as a “safe city” and “the capital of a free democracy that values human rights and social justice,” in an interview with The Telegraph.

Another said: “We look forward to seeing those values brought back into Egypt once our democracy is restored and our freedom from dictatorship and repression won.”

Ibrahim Mounir, a leading official in the organization’s international wing, who is also based at its London office, issued a defiant warning to the interim government.

“All military coups must come to an end,” he said, speaking exclusively to The Telegraph. “Look at Chile or Pakistan.”

Mounir went on to admit that the Brotherhood’s Egyptian operations had been severely hampered, but added that the group had faced a similar situation under former leaders Hosni Mubarak and Gamal Abdel Nasser.

“We have been used to this [repression] for the 60 years, and we can still function, albeit in a different way to before,” he said.

Referring to the military led ouster of Mursi, which the Muslim Brotherhood labels a coup, Mounir said: “it is our objective that the coup leaders are held accountable for their atrocities. The law has to be allowed to work to bring the state back to full capacity.”

Despite the London office, Mounir told The Telegraph that the Brotherhood’s highest orders still come from Egypt.

Meanwhile, the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, has called on a London-based team of internationally renowned lawyers to build a legal case against Egypt’s military-backed interim government.