Death of prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Nada at the age of 93

Egyptian businessman and one of the most prominent leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Youssef Nada, died on Sunday at the age of 93.

Youssef Mustafa Neda was born in 1931 in Alexandria, Egypt. He received his education there and graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture at Alexandria University. He turned early to private business, establishing a dairy factory and expanding his business to various regions of Egypt.

He became acquainted with the Muslim Brotherhood at an early age, especially its late founder Hassan al-Banna, and joined it when he was 17 years old. He participated in the Suez Canal War in 1951, and was arrested by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s regime in what is known as the Manshiyya Incident in 1954, and was released two years later.

Due to the harassment of Abdel Nasser's regime, he emigrated from his country, Egypt, to Libya, and transferred his commercial activities. Due to his strong relationship with King Idris al-Senussi at the time, he obtained a Libyan passport, which would be a gateway to the world to expand his economic relations, especially in Europe.

He was forced to leave Libya after Gaddafi's coup, and headed to Italy, settling in the city of Campione on the Swiss border. In 1988, he founded the Al-Taqwa Bank, which was attacked decades later by the United States, following the September 11 attacks, and George Bush officially accused him of financing them, which led to the US Treasury freezing all of his assets and funds and seizing the bank's assets.

After he was placed under house arrest in Switzerland and investigated by Western security agencies, most notably the American ones, attempts to convict him and remove his name from the list of supporters of terrorism failed, but the United States insisted on keeping his name on the blacklists despite not finding any evidence against him.

Neda held an important position in the Muslim Brotherhood, and was its international commissioner. He played important mediation roles between many countries, especially in the invasion of Kuwait, and between Saudi Arabia and Yemen in the Algerian crisis with the Salvation Front.

Youssef Neda played a prominent role in confirming Yemen's right to the Hanish Islands following the conflict with Eritrea, as he presented the International Court with maps documented by the United States, Britain and Turkey supporting Yemen's position, which led to a ruling in its favor.

Arabic21