UK Muslim Brotherhood review to be published on Thursday: Source

Findings of the long-delayed UK review into the Muslim Brotherhood, led by British diplomat Sir John Jenkins, will be published on Thursday, Middle East Eye understands.

Tayab Ali, a human rights lawyer representing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Development Party, confirmed that his firm, ITN Solicitors, has been informed by government lawyers that the report will now be released.

The review was first commissioned in April last year. Media reports had indicated that it would be published in full by July 2014.

However, in December 2014 the government announced that it would only publish a part of the report.

In March 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron made a last-minute intervention to stop the review from being released. At the time, he said that the report should accompany the release of the government’s counter-extremism strategy.

This strategy was announced in October but no release date was announced for the Jenkins review. Instead, only the main findings of the investigation will be published. 

It is believed that the report will not label the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation and will not call for it to be banned, although it is expected to call for greater transparency in the group’s dealings and finances in the UK.  

Sources close to the investigation told law firm ITN Solicitors back in October that there was "no evidence of links between the Muslim Brotherhood and acts of terrorism”.

Government officials have reportedly been concerned over the report’s potential for alienating its allies in the Gulf, as it was initially commissioned under strong pressure from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

MEE understands that ITN had previously tried to delay the report by insisting it be given access to its findings. 

Several ministers have said that the findings of the report would jeopardise the UK’s relations with key Gulf allies, mainly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, who consider the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation and outlawed it in 2014.

On the other hand, the report's contents could also damage UK relations with Qatar, a major supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially in light of Qatar signing an intelligence-sharing agreement with the UK earlier this year.