Egypt begins trial of foreign and Egyptian NGO activists

Cairo, February 26, 2012 (AFP)

Dozens of democracy activists, including Americans, go on trial before an Egyptian court on Sunday on charges of receiving illegal funds, despite Washington’s pleas that the charges be dropped Judicial sources say the 43 activists who worked with civil society groups, among them 19 Americans, will stand trial before a Cairo court on charges of receiving illicit foreign funding.

Several of the American suspects sought refuge in their embassy in Cairo, including Sam LaHood, son of US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and head of the Egyptian chapter of the International Republican Institute.

The United States, the main foreign benefactor of Egypt’s military rulers, has suggested that the trial of the activists may imperil that aid.

The other foreign non-governmental organisations targeted are the National Democratic Institute, the International Centre for Journalists and Freedom House, all from the United States, and the German Konrad-Adenauer Foundation.

Some of the groups had helped to train activists and political candidates to campaign in parliamentary elections that began last November, in Egypt’s freest vote in decades.

US legislators and Egyptian activists say the trial is politically motivated.

Prosecutors, backed by police, raided the groups’ offices in December, confiscating their equipment and sealing their doors.

In a visit to Cairo last week, Republican Senator John McCain said he was told by military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi that he was working “diligently” to resolve the issue.

But political intervention in the case would belie the authorities’ claim they do not meddle with the independent judiciary, which is already facing one of its greatest tests in a murder and corruption trial of former president Hosni Mubarak.

Late Saturday a senior US official said in the Moroccan capital Rabat that talks are underway in Cairo to resolve “within days” the issue of the democracy activists.

“Intense discussions (are being held) with the Egyptians to try to resolve the situation within days,” the official said.

Negad El-Borai, who represents some of the American defendants, said earlier he did not expect them to appear in court on Sunday.

The other defendants are Egyptians, Germans, Palestinians, Norwegians and Serbs.