Egypt court lists Hamas as 'terrorist' group

An Egyptian court yesterday branded the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas a "terrorist" organisation, a judicial source said, after it was alleged to have links with jihadists behind deadly Sinai attacks.

From Gaza City, Hamas reacted by condemning what it called "a great disgrace which soils the reputation of Egypt".

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Since Egypt's military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the authorities have accused Hamas of aiding jihadists who have waged a string of deadly attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt blames Hamas, which is close to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, of supporting the blacklisted Egyptian movement.

An Egyptian court on January 31 banned the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, declaring it a "terrorist" group.

In March last year, Egypt banned Hamas from carrying out any activities on its soil and froze the assets of the Islamist movement which controls the neighbouring Gaza Strip.

The ruling comes just days after Egypt adopted a new anti-terrorism law allowing the authorities to close the premises of any declared "terrorist" organisation, and to freeze its assets as well as those of its members.

Meanwhile, another Egyptian court yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment the head of the banned Muslim Brotherhood over the killing of protesters who stormed the group's Cairo headquarters in 2013.

Three co-defendants of Mohamed Badie -- the Islamist movement's spiritual leader who already faces three other life terms from other cases -- were sentenced to death in the same trial. Fourteen others, including Badie's deputies Khairat al-Shater and Saad al-Katatni, were handed life terms.