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Egypt NGO Trial

Prelude to the Trial

In April 2011, two months after the uprising leading to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak, Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abu el-Naga, a Mubarak=era stalwart, led a “fact-finding mission” with the Ministry of Justice to investigate NGOs operating in Egypt. Comments from U.S. Officials and NGOs affected by the investigation was that it was motivated by anger that the funding for the NGOs was no longer being channeled through the her Ministry. Funding for the NGOs came from a wide variety of sources including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) distributing $65 million to civil society groups in Egypt. bypassing the Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Boul Nega. Additional speculation was that the investigation and subsequent actions were politically motivated because of a decision by the U.S. Congress to make aid conditional on guarantees of progress toward democracy angering the military. In December 2011 Egyptian police conducted armed raids on 17 NGO offices across Cairo, resulting in the temporary detention of employees and seizure of equipment. The NGOs defense for operating without a licensee was that this had become a common practice, with full awareness of the Egyptian government, and tolerated for many years as the normal licensing process was ineffective. NGOs have argued that the relevant legislation is ambiguous and that under article 5 of the law regulating civil society, organizations not receiving a denial to their request within 60 days are automatically legal.

Arrests

Forty-three workers, drawn from organizations including the US-government-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Freedom House, were eventually charged and put on trial for operating illegally in Egypt. The Egyptian government made use of the Interpol Diffusion Notice process to bypass normal review which would have been required for a formal Red Notice. After objections from the US Department of Justice, INTERPOL subsequently ruled the notices put out by the Egyptians were of a political, not criminal, nature and in an unusual move asked member countries to disregard the diffusion and remove all mention from their databases.

Initially Americans who were in the country at the time of the charges sought shelter at the US Embassy. After negotiations between the US and Egyptian government, bail in the amount of 5 million US dollars was paid and the Americans allowed to leave the country. All but one, Mr. Charles Becker, took advantage of the opportunity to depart and did not return at any point during the subsequent trial. Nevertheless, the trial was conducted with their subsequent convictions being done in absentia.

The Trial

The proceedings – which began with armed raids on the US government-funded International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI), Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and a few other groups in Dec. 2011 – have laid bare the limits of international democracy promotion efforts in Egypt in the post-Mubarak era.In all, 43 people are on trial for this "crime." The balance are foreign nationals who fled the country, many of them US citizens, rather than face trial The crux of the case is that the NGOs never received formal approval to operate here, despite long-standing working relationships with the foreign ministry and state security. In 2006, the activities of NDI and IRI in Egypt were briefly suspended, though eventually resumed operations after working out an operating relationship with the government. Official registration, though, was never granted. The three judges originally assigned to hear the case resigned early into the trial. While reports from Egyptian media said the three judges resigned in "embarrassment" the actual reasons for the resignations are unclear. Senior judge Abdel-Moez Ibrahim said in a state TV interview that Shukry's son was asked to step down because he had partners who worked for the U.S. Embassy, and this could make it difficult for him to judge the case impartially. Shurky later denied that his son works with anyone linked to employees at the U.S. Embassy. However, in interviews with Egyptian dailies he implied that he was subject to unspecified pressure. Judge Abdel Moez Ibrahim, head of Cairo Appeal Court, who received Shukry's request to resign told Reuters Shukry did not give a reason for his decision. Closing statements at the end of the tiral noted that judges investigating the case had served as chief prosecutors in the Supreme State Security Prosecution, reputed to fabricate charges against opponents of the Mubarak regime and covering up torture by security services. Seven of the Americans charged holed up in the US embassy for weeks in early 2012, until the Egyptian government, then run by a military junta, lifted a travel ban on the foreigners. The Americans scurried from the embassy to a US-government plane and fled the country. Among them was Sam LaHood, the IRI director and son of Obama administration Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. Robert Becker, a career campaign organizer for Democrats in the US who has also conducted political training from Indonesia to Rwanda, elected to stay behind in solidarity with his Egyptian colleagues and was fired by NDI for his decision. Most of those who fled, the foreigners in management positions at the NGOs, are charged with illegally operating NGOs, including Mr. Becker, notwithstanding that he had no management role and was here as a political parties trainer and election observer. The Egyptians on trial and dual-nationals like Halawa are charged with illegally receiving foreign funds – their paychecks. A $5 million bail was posted on behalf of the defendants funded by the US Government.The American who stayed behind is Robert Becker, a former NDI employee. Also facing charges are five Serbs, two Germans, two Lebanese, one Jordanian and one Palestinian, in addition to 14 Egyptians, all of whom have either been banned from travel or have been placed on inbound watch-lists if they are outside the country.

The Verdict And Aftermath a criminal court in Cairo convicted 43 NGO workers on charges of illegally using foreign funding to foment civil unrest. Kerry said the closure order on the NGO offices and the seizure of their assets “contradicts the Government of Egypt’s commitments to support the role of civil society.” He urged President Mohamed Morsi’s government to “work with civic groups as they respond to the Egyptian people’s aspirations for democracy as guaranteed in Egypt’s new constitution.” Most of the 16 Americans who would have been affected by the verdicts had left the country months ago, so the ruling was made in their absence. The Americans sentenced in absentia include the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

American NGO’s Response The National Democratic Institute (NDI) said it was “shocked and deeply distressed” by the verdicts. “The verdict also has a chilling effect on the important efforts of civil society in Egypt.” The NDI said. "The Institute will do whatever it can to clear the names of its innocent employees."The state press quoted testimony by Nega, in which she alleged that the U.S. government has worked actively through the NGOs to sow unrest. Hers is the longest witness testimony in the prosecution's files, according to a source close to the case, and a volunteer prosecutor at Sunday's hearing demanded that espionage charges be formally added to the case. First day Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012 Those original raids, with hints in the Egyptian press that the government would seek treason and espionage charges that could carry the death penalty, alarmed both the US government and the organizations and led to a standoff over their foreign employees.The Cairo Criminal Court slammed 43 NGO workers — including 19 Americans, 16 Egyptians, along with Germans, Serbs, Norwegians, Palestinians, and Jordanians — with prison sentences ranging from one to five years and 1,000 Egyptian pound fines in convictions on June 4 ANHRI claimed it was also personal vengeance since rights groups exposed the rigging of elections in 2010, through which Aboul Naga had won a seat in parliament. Both houses of parliament were dissolved following the Jan. 25 uprising. - See more at: http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2012/02/08/judge-says-ngos-were-lawfully-inspected-not-raided/#sthash.kc6zTDJL.dpuf Of the 43 defendants, none are expected to actually go to jail. Those in imminent threat of imprisonment have all fled the country. The 11 Egyptians, who received one-year suspended sentences, only stand to be imprisoned if they are found to engage in “similar activities” within the next three years. All of the defendants are expected to appeal the case.

The NGO case initially strained US-Egyptian relations, but in the end, it marked yet another episode in Egypt’s regressive post-revolution transition in which the Obama administration failed to hold the Egyptian government accountable for repressive actions. Egypt annually receives more than $1.3 billion in military aid and $250 million in economic assistance. In March 2012, one month after the formal charges, former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton cited US national security interests in waiving part of the legislative conditions on foreign aid to Egypt relating to the democratic transition. She also certified to Congress that Egypt had met its obligations under the 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Israel. Tensions between the United States and Egypt have been fragile and this latest development has put further strain on the relationship. The U.S. provides over $1 billion in aid to Egypt annually. Members of Congress have written to Clinton, asking her to withhold any further aid to Egypt until the NGOs' offices are reopened.

Presiding Judge Makram Awad’s preamble to the verdict, shared in a post by Tarek Radwan of the Atlantic Council, exemplifies the politicized paranoia behind the case. “Under the former regime that … prostrated before America’s will to normalize relations between Egypt and Israel, foreign funding for civil society organizations emerged as a manifestation of this normalization policy. They aimed to undermine and dismantle state institutions … to serve American and Israeli interests which surpassed those of the Egyptian people.”

The International Republican Institute described the Egyptian trial and verdicts as a “politically motivated effort to squash Egypt’s growing civil society.”

The Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI) also condemned the verdicts, including the five-year sentence handed down for Charles Dunne, an MEI scholar and director of Freedom House’s Middle East and North Africa programs. Halawa and other defendants complain that Egypt's NGO community has not rallied around them, frightened off by the early claims in the Egyptian press that they were spies or guilty of treason. That tactic was a staple of the Mubarak-era, and the meme was pushed hard by Mubarak holdover Fayza Aboul Naga, minister of international cooperation until earlier this year, who had long been at the sharp end of Mubarak-era efforts to prevent civil society from flourishing here. "The convictions represent a serious setback for civil society in Egypt and reflect a disturbing trend in countries from Egypt to Russia," said Middle East Institute president, Wendy Chamberlin. Twenty-seven of the defendants, all of whom were tried in absentia, received prison sentences of five years. Eleven of those who attended the trial received one-year suspended sentences, and five others received two years. Judge Makram Awad also ruled that the NGOs that the defendants worked for should be closed in Egypt. In a statement, Dunne called upon the U.S. government and Congress to make clear to President Morsi that "the continued persecution of civil society activists is a grave breach of his stated commitment to a democratic transition."