Egypt freezes assets of 29 from Muslim Brotherhood

CAIRO, Jan 28 (Reuters) The Egyptian government placed a temporary freeze on the assets of 29 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood today in the latest crackdown on Egypt's largest opposition movement, judicial sources said.

The sources said the government had barred the Brotherhood members -- including a deputy to the group's leader Mahdi Akef -- and their wives and children from making currency or property transactions pending a court hearing on Tuesday.

The sources gave no official reason for the freeze, but authorities launch regular crackdowns on the Brotherhood, which operates openly despite being officially banned. Most of the 29 men are detained, some on charges that include money laundering.

Among those whose assets were frozen was Khairat el-Shatir, one of Mahdi Akef's two deputies. Shatir, the most senior Brotherhood member currently detained, was taken from his home in a Cairo suburb last month at the start of a clampdown that has seen more than 270 Brotherhood members jailed.

Abdel Meneim Abdel Maqsoud, a lawyer for the Brotherhood, said he had not yet been informed of the decision to freeze the assets, which he labelled as a ''political'' move.

Some analysts say the government is preparing for a wider assault on the group after President Hosni Mubarak said this month that the Brotherhood posed a threat to Egypt's security.

The government was also angered by a protest march at al-Azhar University last month in which Islamist students wore militia-style uniforms and black balaclavas. State media, in charges dismissed by the Brotherhood, have said the march showed the group was forming a militia.

Mubarak has also proposed constitutional amendments that include a ban on forming political parties based on religion.

The Brotherhood says it wants to establish a civil, democratic party that is not exclusive to Muslims.

Brotherhood members elected as independents hold 88 seats in the 454-member lower house of parliament, which is dominated by Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party.

REUTERS SP KP2203