CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian authorities said on Thursday they had blocked a scheme aimed at financing the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and alleged a link to the imprisoned founder and former chairman of dairy and juice firm Juhayna, Safwan Thabet.
The scheme aimed to funnel funds using Thabet’s companies into “terrorist activities”, the interior ministry said in a statement, adding that $8.4 million and ammunition had been found in an apartment in Giza, across the Nile from central Cairo. It described Thabet as a “Brotherhood leader”.
The Thabet family have denied any wrongdoing in statements on social media. A lawyer for Juhayna could not be reached.
Thabet was arrested in December, and his son Seifeldin was detained in February after taking over as chairman.
In a statement released on Monday, rights group Amnesty International said authorities were holding the men in conditions that amounted to torture after they refused to cede assets to a government-owned entity.
Amnesty said the authorities had failed to produce evidence for the alleged affiliation with the Brotherhood.
Juhayna is a household name in Egypt and the country’s largest dairy products and juice producer.
The Brotherhood has been subject to a sweeping crackdown since then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led their ouster from power in 2013.
Juhayna continued to operate normally after Sisi became president the following year.
(Reporting by Cairo bureau; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
