Jordan bans Muslim Brotherhood, confiscates assets, offices

Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood group on Wednesday and confiscated its assets and offices in the kingdom.

"All activities of the so-called Muslim Brotherhood are banned, and it is considered an illegal entity," Interior Minister Mazin al-Farrayeh told a press conference in Amman.

He said the promotion of the Brotherhood ideology is now illegal and warrants legal accountability.

The ban includes the closure of the group's offices across Jordan.

"Any activity by the group, regardless of its nature, is considered a violation of the law and will be met with legal consequences," he warned.

The minister said that the Brotherhood's continued actions "expose society to risks and threaten citizens' lives."

Last week, the Jordanian authorities announced thwarting plots targeting national security and arresting 16 suspects.

"On the same night (of foiling the plots), the Brotherhood attempted to smuggle and destroy large quantities of documents from its headquarters to conceal its suspicious activities and connections," Farrayeh said.

He said authorities had foiled an operation to manufacture and test explosives by the son of a Brotherhood leader, intended to target security forces and sensitive sites in Jordan, without providing more details.

In July 2020, Jordan's Court of Cassation, the country's highest judicial authority, ordered the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood.

During the Arab Spring revolutions, Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood experienced a significant schism when some members split off to form the Muslim Brotherhood Association, a move the original group condemned as a coup against its legitimacy, especially after the Jordanian government granted the new association a license in March 2015.