Court acquits 40 defendants in Unlicensed NGOs foreign funds' case

CAIRO – 21 December 2018: The Cairo Criminal Court acquitted 40 defendants after retrying them on Thursday over charges of receiving $60 million in foreign funds for human rights organizations and NGOs working in Egypt without licenses. The court acquitted 40 defendants in the case known in media as "Foreign Funding" that started in 2011. The court also accepted a complaint filed by a defendant against the decision to ban him from traveling. The defendants in the case dubbed in media as the “Foreign Funding” case were accused of receiving the money to use it for “restricted activities and in violation of the state's policy." A total of 16 defendants, out of 43 Egyptian and foreign workers, were sentenced in June 2013 to prison sentences between one and five years. A number of human rights activists appealed against the sentences at the Court of Cassation. As per the investigations, the sentenced defendants, including 14 Egyptians and 29 Americans, Europeans and Arabs. On June 4, 2013, Cairo Criminal Court handed five-year-sentences in absentia to 32 defendants, including 17 U.S. citizens and one-year-suspended sentences to 11 Egyptian defendants. The court ordered the closure of the organizations in questions, including: the International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute, Freedom House, International Center for Journalists and Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Three years later in 2016, the Egyptian prosecution added more NGOs including: the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Nazra for Feminist Studies, the Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and United Group. Three staff members of Nazra for Feminist Studies appeared before the investigations. In addition, the renowned rights activist Hossam Bahgat is being investigated. He is a journalist and the founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), as well as Gamal Eid, a lawyer and founder of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) as they are accused of receiving illegal funds for their NGOs. They both had been banned from traveling and their assets were frozen along with the assets of Eid’s daughter and wife. The Cairo Criminal Court approved a freeze on their assets in September 2016.