Mahmoud El-Ebary Under Sanctions: How Did His Name Become Linked to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Organizational Structure?
For decades, Mahmoud El-Ebary remained largely out of the spotlight, managing some of the most sensitive files within the Muslim Brotherhood’s international organization from behind the scenes. The latest U.S. sanctions, however, have brought him into the public eye and dealt another blow to the Brotherhood’s financial and organizational networks and its activities across Europe.
El-Ebary, who serves as secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood’s international organization, is described within some circles of the movement as one of its leading organizational and financial architects, as well as a figure with considerable influence across its networks spanning several European countries.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated El-Ebary, an Austrian national residing in the United Kingdom, along with three individuals and three entities that the department said had been used by the Muslim Brotherhood as fronts to finance its activities and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Under the decision, any financial assets belonging to El-Ebary that fall under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen. U.S. citizens and companies are also prohibited from conducting transactions with him or with the individuals and entities covered by the sanctions.
The decision represents a direct blow to a figure whose name has been associated for years with the management of several files within the international organization, particularly those involving financial and organizational networks operating from Europe.
Who Is Mahmoud El-Ebary?
According to sources familiar with the affairs of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mahmoud El-Ebary, who has also been described as the movement’s “financial architect,” is one of its most prominent current leaders, with a role that extends far beyond his official position as secretary-general of the international organization.
According to these sources, El-Ebary was not merely an administrative official within the organization. Rather, he sought to build long-term influence, becoming one of the key players in managing sensitive files, while aspiring to become the movement’s acting supreme guide.
Born in 1952, El-Ebary reportedly became associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s through what was known as the “1965 Organization,” which was linked to Sayyid Qutb, before leaving Egypt and moving to Europe.
In Europe, El-Ebary settled in Austria and participated in building the movement’s networks and institutions, alongside several prominent figures associated with the international organization, including Anas al-Shuqfa, Ibrahim al-Zayyat, Youssef Nada, and Said Ramadan, the son-in-law of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna.
Over the years, El-Ebary obtained Austrian citizenship and expanded his activities within institutions and organizations associated with the movement in Austria and the United Kingdom, moving between Vienna and London and benefiting from the growing presence of the international organization in Europe.
A Man Managing Sensitive Files from Behind the Scenes
Unlike several Muslim Brotherhood leaders who became visible figures on the media and political scene, El-Ebary spent many years working away from the spotlight, focusing on the organization’s most sensitive financial and organizational files.
His influence reportedly became particularly evident during his work alongside Ibrahim Munir, the former secretary-general of the international organization, who later became acting supreme guide from late 2020 until his death in 2022.
According to the sources, El-Ebary exercised considerable influence over the organization’s decision-making process, to the extent that a number of important files reportedly passed through him before receiving approval.
Information about him remained relatively limited compared with the extent of his alleged influence and largely concerned his links to the management of companies and institutions operating from London.
Among the entities whose management has been associated with his name are Nile Valley Trust and Allam Media Services, both registered at the same address on Cricklewood Broadway in London, an address associated with one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s offices in the British capital.
El-Ebary was also reportedly associated with the management of “Risalat al-Ikhwan,” one of the movement’s media platforms in the West, as well as with the supervision of a mailing group used to communicate and coordinate between parties linked to the organization.
According to the sources, this group was not merely a media communications tool but formed part of a broader organizational network through which assignments and directives were transmitted to branches of the international organization via the general secretariat, of which El-Ebary was one of the key figures, in coordination with Ibrahim Munir.
From the Shadows to the Forefront
Following the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt in 2013, El-Ebary’s public profile gradually began to change.
After years of operating away from the spotlight, he became increasingly involved in the political, media, and organizational activities led by the movement from abroad, emerging as part of a group of leaders responsible for managing some of the Brotherhood’s affairs outside Egypt.
In addition to El-Ebary, this circle included Ibrahim Munir, Youssef Nada, the movement’s former commissioner for international relations, Jumaa Amin Abdel Aziz, deputy supreme guide, and Mahmoud Hussein, a member of the Guidance Bureau and secretary-general of the movement.
This group managed part of the political and media campaign waged by the Muslim Brotherhood against the Egyptian state, relying on its networks in Europe and affiliated media platforms.
Internal Divisions: An Early Test of Influence
El-Ebary’s influence became more apparent during the internal conflicts that shook the movement.
In 2015, the organization experienced one of the most significant divisions in its history, amid a power struggle between the faction of Mahmoud Ezzat, then acting supreme guide, and the faction of Mohamed Kamal, head of the first Higher Administrative Committee.
During this confrontation, informed sources said El-Ebary played a behind-the-scenes role in supporting measures targeting leaders associated with Mohamed Kamal’s faction, thereby strengthening the position of the faction with which he was closer within the organization.
At the same time, he became involved in efforts aimed at improving the movement’s image abroad, while the United Kingdom was preparing a report assessing the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country.
During that period, El-Ebary published articles defending the movement and held contacts with a number of British institutions in an attempt to influence the official debate over the future of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United Kingdom.
Ties with Iran
El-Ebary’s activities were not confined to the European arena. According to the same sources, his name was also linked to the issue of relations between the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran.
According to these accounts, his role included arranging meetings and contacts between the two sides through events associated with what is known as the “Islamic Unity Forum,” as well as participating in meetings that brought together figures from both sides in recent years.
For the movement’s opponents, this file reflects the expansion of El-Ebary’s activities beyond the organization’s traditional boundaries and his involvement in managing relations and contacts with broader regional implications.
After Ezzat and Munir: A Greater Rise in Influence
El-Ebary’s influence entered a new phase following the arrest of Mahmoud Ezzat in 2020 and the death of Ibrahim Munir in 2022.
After becoming secretary-general of the international organization, El-Ebary emerged as one of the most influential figures in managing the movement’s affairs, particularly its networks in Europe.
Following Munir’s death in November 2022, El-Ebary, alongside other leaders of the London faction, participated in arranging the leadership transition to Salah Abdel Haq, who assumed the position of acting supreme guide.
Abdel Haq’s selection attracted particular attention within the movement, especially because he had not been a member of either the Shura Council or the Guidance Bureau. He had also remained away from the leadership scene for an extended period, with his role for decades largely limited to overseeing the organization’s educational apparatus.
According to accounts circulating within the movement, the calculations behind this arrangement were based on keeping key files within a narrow circle of leaders while Salah Abdel Haq assumed the organization’s official public role.
However, this arrangement did not end the internal power struggles. Instead, it opened the door to new disputes over influence and the mechanisms governing the organization.
A New Power Struggle within the London Faction
Between 2023 and 2024, tensions escalated between El-Ebary and several leaders of the London faction, including Helmy al-Gazzar, deputy acting supreme guide and supervisor of the political department, and Mohieddine al-Zayet, deputy acting supreme guide and a member of the movement’s Shura Council.
During this crisis, El-Ebary signaled that he might align himself with the Istanbul faction led by Mahmoud Hussein, the acting supreme guide of that faction.
However, this course did not last long. El-Ebary subsequently returned to an understanding with Salah Abdel Haq and the leadership of the London faction, reflecting the complex nature of the internal struggle within the organization, where personal, organizational, and financial calculations intersect.
Money at the Heart of the Power Struggle
The disputes within the Muslim Brotherhood were not limited to political and organizational leadership. They also extended to financial resources and funding networks.
In 2025, the struggle over the funds of the League of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Members Abroad, a cross-border organizational entity linked to the Egyptian organization, resurfaced.
In this context, the league’s former president, Saadani Ahmed, reportedly sought to take control of its offices in Europe and obtain the monthly funding transferred through those offices.
El-Ebary, however, reportedly used his network of relationships in Europe to detach several league offices from Saadani Ahmed’s leadership and reconnect them to the European sector of the international organization.
The success of this move strengthened El-Ebary’s influence within the movement’s European structure and increased his role in managing part of its resources and organizational networks.
According to the sources, his influence also extended to circles within the Egyptian organization, strengthening his ambition to become acting supreme guide after Salah Abdel Haq’s term ends in November 2026.
Leadership Ambitions Meet Resistance
El-Ebary’s path toward the leadership of the movement, however, was not without obstacles.
His ambitions reportedly faced opposition from leaders within the London faction, including Helmy al-Gazzar and Mohieddine al-Zayet, who sought to limit his chances of becoming acting supreme guide.
According to accounts circulating within the organization, the objections focused on El-Ebary’s position within the international organization as well as his Austrian citizenship. His opponents reportedly viewed these factors as potential obstacles to his assumption of a leadership position within the Egyptian organization.
El-Ebary, for his part, reportedly sought to overcome these objections by emphasizing his Egyptian origins and his network of relationships within the movement, while arguing that the exceptional circumstances facing the organization required certain traditional organizational restrictions to be set aside.
The succession to Salah Abdel Haq therefore became one of the movement’s most prominent arenas of internal power struggle, particularly as the end of his term approaches.
U.S. Sanctions Upend the Calculations
As the leadership succession battle within the Muslim Brotherhood entered a more sensitive phase, the U.S. sanctions imposed a new reality on El-Ebary’s calculations.
His designation on the sanctions list represents more than a financial measure. It places a figure who spent years operating behind the scenes under increased legal and financial scrutiny while limiting his ability to conduct dealings with institutions, companies, and individuals connected to the United States.
Targeting him alongside entities and individuals that the U.S. Treasury Department says are linked to networks used by the Muslim Brotherhood to finance its activities and Hamas also places the organization’s European financial networks under greater scrutiny.
For El-Ebary, the sanctions come at an extremely sensitive moment. He is no longer merely an organizational figure operating away from public view; his name is now directly associated with a U.S. decision that places his activities and networks under the scrutiny of financial sanctions.
The sanctions may therefore have ended, or at least curtailed, one of the key advantages of the “man in the shadows”: the ability to exercise influence away from the public arena.
The man who spent decades building his influence within the international organization’s networks, moving between Europe and its financial, media, and organizational affairs, now faces a different equation: considerable influence on one side and growing financial and legal restrictions on the other.
As the movement approaches its leadership deadline in November 2026, questions remain over El-Ebary’s future, his ability to preserve his influence, and whether the U.S. sanctions will redraw the balance of power within the Muslim Brotherhood’s international organization.
After decades spent operating in the shadows, Mahmoud El-Ebary now finds himself at the center of the scene, not merely as one of the organization’s leaders, but as a figure directly targeted by U.S. measures in a move that could have implications extending beyond him personally to the organization’s networks that he helped build and manage for years.
