CAIRO, Jul 7 (Aswat Masriya) - An Egyptian ministry dissolved 14 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on Tuesday for their "relations with the Muslim Brotherhood", bringing the total number of NGOs shut down in similar decisions this year to 444. 

The 14 NGOs are located in three Egyptian governorates, with 10 of them being in Upper Egypt's Minya.

An urgent matters court banned the Brotherhood in September 2013 and a committee was established to manage the group's funds.

The decision to shut down the NGOs comes in implementation of this court decision, Egyptian Social Solidarity Minister Ghada Wali said in a statement. 

Wali previously dissolved 169 NGOs on February 23 and 112 more on March 1 and 99 on March 18 in implementation of the court ruling. More recently, it dissolved 50 NGOs on May 26. 

The committee managing the Brotherhood's funds decided, also on Tuesday, to seize a hospital owned by a top Brotherhood leader, it said in a statement. Secretary general of the committee, Mohamed Aboul Fottouh said the hospital is currently operating under the Ministry of Health and is running normally. 

The court ruling stipulates the banning of the activities of any association that is branched from the Brotherhood, that was founded by Brotherhood funds or that receives any form of support from the Brotherhood.

Egypt listed the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation in December 2013 and insists it is behind the wave of militancy which has targeted security personnel since July 2013. The Brotherhood continuously denies the accusations.