Egypt to put NGO workers, including Americans, on trial

Egypt is to try 44 people over the alleged illegal funding of aid groups, a judicial source said on Sunday, a day after Washington said it would review aid to Cairo over the crackdown. “Forty-four people, including Egyptians, 19 Americans and other nationalities, have been referred to the Cairo criminal court in the NGO funding case,” the source told AFP. A travel ban on all remains in place.

The official MENA news agency said the group also includes Germans, Norwegians, Serbians, Jordanians and Palestinians.

The decision drew condemnation from US groups who voiced concern for staff in Egypt and from Germany.

“This represents another escalation by the Egyptian government in its war on civil society -- and it’s not just US organisations, it’s Egyptian organisations,” said Charles Dunne, director for Middle East and North Africa programmes for Freedom House.

The offices of Freedom House and the International Republican Institute, were among 17 local and international NGOs raided in December by Egyptianauthorities as part of a probe into alleged illegal funding.

“At the moment we are trying to ascertain what has happened and what Freedom House staff, if any, were affected,” said Mary McGuire, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based organisation.

“I find it astounding that they would do this while you still have a delegation of Egyptian general officers here in the United States to talk to Congress and the administration about continued US military funding,” he said.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle slammed Egypt’s decision. “It is unacceptable to harm organisations that have a real international mission which they take on seriously,” he told ARD television according to an early release transcript “We shall act, in the framework of our foreign policy towards Egypt, in such a way as to ensure that political organisations that have a worldwide reputation are allowed to continue working as they have done.”

The aid workers are accused of “setting up branches of international organisations in Egypt without a licence from the Egyptian government” and of “receiving illegal foreign funding.”

Egypt’s ruling military council, which took power after an uprising toppled veteran president Hosni Mubarak, has accused foreign groups of funding street protests against them.

The move will further strain US-Egypt ties after last year’s raid during which Cairo prosecutors confiscated computers and paperwork from NGO offices. Egypt then barred some US members of the NGOs from leaving the country and American officials said “a handful” took refuge inside the US embassy.

AFP