Former BBC African Footballer of The Year, Mohamed Aboutrika Placed on Egypt Terror List

An Egyptian court has added former football star and 2008 BBC African Footballer of the Year, Mohamed Aboutrika to the authorities’ terror list.

His lawyer on Tuesday said the move is based on suspicions he financed the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

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

The government accuses him of financing the Muslim Brotherhood, which was classified as a terrorist organisation at the end of 2013.

According to an anti-terror law imposed in 2015 by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, anyone on the country’s terror list is subject to a travel ban, with their passport and assets liable to be frozen.

Mohamed Aboutrika 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.

Aboutrika’s lawyer Mohamed Osman said that the court’s decision was “contrary to the law” saying the retired player “has not been convicted or formally notified of any of the charges against him.”

“We will appeal this decision,” he said, adding that “if he is added to the list there will be many legal consequences, notably the travel ban.”