The Egyptian cabinet has said that it will implement penalties for engaging in terrorism on members of the Muslim Brotherhood or anyone supporting them starting this week, four months after it designated the group a terrorist organisation.
The government’s decision to label the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation was upheld by a decision by the Court of Urgent Matters in February.
According to the cabinet, following the court ruling, members of the group will be liable for terrorism offences according to the Egyptian penal code.
Penalties according to the law will be exacted on anyone who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, any person who supports it verbally or in writing or in "other ways" and any person who funds its activities.
Arab states subject to the 1998 Arab Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism will be notified of the decision, the clause said.
Thousands of Brotherhood members and supporters are already facing charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation. Protesters arrested at pro-Brotherhood protests are frequently charged with terrorism offences.
The Brotherhood has insisted it is peaceful and condemned violence committed against police and army forces, but the government claims that the group is linked to ongoing militant violence in Egypt which has claimed hundreds of lives.
