Cairo converts the Brotherhood’s terrorist listing from time-limited to permanent by gazette notice

The decision appeared in Al-Waqa’i al-Masriya, the government’s legal gazette, in the edition of 8 November 2026, and took effect on publication. Misr Elaan, which reproduced the text, specifies issue no. 248, supplement (A), and attributes the decision to the Public Prosecution’s Office for the Regulation of Terrorist Entity and Terrorist Lists. Arabic reporting gives the instrument numbers as Public Prosecution decisions nos. 1 and 7 of 2026, permanently listing the Jamaa as a terrorist entity and adding three men to the separate terrorists list: Abdel Rahman Hassan Mohamed Melegy, Gamal Abdel Hamid Gomaa Abdel Hamid and Osama Ibrahim Mohamed Mostafa al-Rokh. Youm7 published the gazette text. Ahram Online, The National, Egypt Today, Egyptian Streets and the Egyptian Gazette carried the decision independently; every Egyptian outlet reporting it is state or state-aligned, and it is the gazette citation rather than the coverage that carries the claim.

What changed is duration. The National’s own framing is that the move “changes the legal basis and duration of its listing, rather than imposing a new ban.” Egyptian Streets reports the permanent designation ends the possibility of the listing expiring under the previous time-limited court rulings; Egypt Today reports it rests on “final and binding” judicial rulings. The Egyptian Gazette carries the official line that this is not a political decision to ban the group — government framing, and it should be read as such. On the other side, Freedom and Justice Gate, the portal of the Brotherhood’s dissolved political party, published an 11 November legal explainer arguing the decision bans the group’s activities and freezes its assets, that its effects do not automatically extend to individuals, and that any extension abroad remains contingent on other states' legislation and their own political and legal calculations. That is a partisan platform making an accurate point.

Assessment: The practical yield of a permanent listing is procedural: it removes a renewal date, and with it a recurring point of contact between the file and the courts. Nothing about enforcement inside Egypt changes this week. Two cautions. The instrument numbers rest on Arabic secondary reporting of the gazette rather than on the gazette PDF, so cite them as such. And an Egyptian listing travels nowhere on its own — the Brotherhood’s own lawyers are right that extraterritorial effect depends entirely on other jurisdictions choosing to act. The test of whether Washington’s approval is more than approval is whether Melegy, Abdel Hamid or al-Rokh turn up on an OFAC entry.