The curse of the Muslim Brotherhood haunts Egyptians residing in Turkey, where it has become certain that hundreds of Egyptians will be subjected to investigations following the real estate mafia scandal, and their citizenship applications will be scrutinized, in addition to freezing any pending notifications.

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A source close to the Muslim Brotherhood revealed to “Mada Masr” website that the decision to revoke citizenship from the Brotherhood leader Mahmoud Hussein preceded a Turkish government decision to review the files of all Egyptians, whether affiliated with the Brotherhood or not, who have obtained Turkish citizenship from 2015 until now, after detecting a number of Brotherhood leaders profiting from and trafficking in citizenship matters.

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Another source added that there is a list of 50 individuals, including leaders and members of the Islamic group, as well as youth and leaders affiliated with the Brotherhood, and others who have no connections with the group. They have been notified of the withdrawal of their Turkish passports, which they obtained in recent years.

The first source clarified that the citizenship revocation came after a security campaign launched by the Turkish Interior Ministry over the past six months, which included interrogating a number of Brotherhood leaders and reviewing the files of naturalized Egyptians in recent years.

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The same source pointed out that Turkey had observed a group of Brotherhood leaders exploiting their strong ties with Turkish officials to profit from the naturalization of Egyptians with Turkish citizenship. They compiled lists of Egyptians present in Turkey and abroad and collected donations for them from Brotherhood leaders and supporters in Gulf countries, Europe, Russia, and elsewhere, claiming that they were politically persecuted. Then they leveraged their relationships with Turkish officials to mediate with the Ministry of Interior to naturalize these Egyptians in exchange for Brotherhood leaders receiving substantial sums of money for each person obtaining citizenship.

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The same source also stated that the Turkish Interior Ministry had previously summoned a number of Brotherhood leaders, including the former spokesman for the Freedom and Justice Party, Hazem Zawba, and the Brotherhood leader and head of the Egyptian community, Adel Rashid, and interrogated them on charges related to profiteering. Furthermore, they reviewed the naturalization procedures for all Egyptians since 2015, leading to the identification of more than 50 files that did not meet the requirements.

While the source close to the Brotherhood stated that although Hussein was not among the leaders involved in the profiteering charges, Turkish authorities found that his naturalization procedures were rushed and that the file granting him citizenship did not meet the required criteria in terms of documentation.

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The Turkish Interior Ministry had decided to revoke the citizenship of Mahmoud Hussein, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, residing in Istanbul, and others, including the head of the Egyptian community in Turkey, Brotherhood member Adel Rashid.