Unlicensed Islamist group wants review of asset transfer to new society

AMMAN — The “old” Muslim Brotherhood group on Thursday addressed the Department of Lands and Survey, demanding that it revisit its decision of transferring all assets to the new licensed Muslim Brotherhood Society.

In a statement sent to The Jordan Times, Bassam Freihat, legal adviser of the unlicensed group, said the Muslim Brotherhood has embarked on legal action seeking to cancel the procedures through which the group’s assets were transferred to the new society registered on March 3, 2015.

In the statement, Freihat charged that the “new” registered society is assuming the Muslim Brotherhood’s legal identity.

All assets were officially transferred to the new society after the Legislation and Opinion Bureau issued a legal ruling in May allowing the process.

“We expect a response from the Department of Lands and Survey early next week,” said Muath Khawaldeh, spokesperson of the old group.

The society has also sent a warning to the unlicensed group requesting that they evacuate the movement’s offices.

Despite several attempts by The Jordan Times to contact Abdul Majeed Thneibat, the overall leader of the registered society, he was not available for comment.

The crisis of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan started when a group of reformists led by Thneibat re-registered the movement as a Jordanian society, severing its affiliation with its mother group in Egypt.

The unlicensed movement has repeatedly charged that the establishment of the new Brotherhood society is a “government conspiracy” against the Islamists, but the authorities have said it is merely an “organisational” issue.