CAIRO: Judge Sameh Abou Zeid, investigating the alleged illegal foreign funding of local and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs), said Wednesday that inspecting their offices was legal according to the criminal procedural law. "Labeling this inspection as a ‘raid' is inaccurate since the law gives us the authority to order the prosecution to inspect the NGOs in question," Abou Zeid said in a press conference held at the Ministry of Justice, reiterating earlier statements by the Minister of International Cooperation and Foreign Funding. Investigating judge Ashraf El-Ashmawy said the defendants were referred to court in line with Egypt's penal code and not the controversial NGOs law, adding that the charges against the staff could lead to five-year prison sentences. "These organizations conducted unlicensed and illegal activities without the knowledge of the Egyptian government,” El-Ashmawy said. A total of 44 workers in five foreign NGOs, including 19 Americans, were referred to the Cairo Criminal Court for violating Egyptian law by receiving illegal foreign funding. The US defendants include Sam LaHood, the son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. 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. US ambassador Anne W. Patterson urged authorities to lift the travel ban. "This is illegal and Patterson violated Egyptian laws that stipulate that ambassadors of foreign countries should not directly address the judiciary, and because she is not one of the parties involved in the case," Abou Zeid said, adding that the matter was referred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to act accordingly. Abou Zeid said investigators were astonished with the interference of the American ambassador, which politicized the probe. "We are not involved in politics, but if we have to be involved we will act according to the law," he said. The move triggered the anger of US lawmakers who are currently pressuring for halting US military aid to Egypt, saying it is conditional upon the country's commitment to democracy and preserving freedoms. Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Aboul Naga said in another press conference Wednesday that Egypt has strong strategic relations with the US, which will not be affected by such disagreements. Prosecution and army forces raided in December a group of foreign and local NGOs, confiscated equipment and documents and closed down some of the offices under allegations of receiving illegal foreign funding. Abou Zeid said that Ministry of Justice ordered the formation of a fact-finding committee to start investigating the case in July, which then recommended appointing two judges to continue the investigation. The judges, according to Abou Zeid, began the investigation in September and ordered a warrant to inspect the offices of local and foreign NGOs. "We discovered that five foreign NGOs received secret money transactions from abroad under names of workers inside these NGOs not through official bank accounts [under the name of the NGOs]. Transactions were in the millions of pounds," he said. "Workers inside these NGOs deliberately had tourist visas, not work visas, and did not pay taxes," Abou Zeid continued. He said 67 items were confiscated during the raid, including documents that “prove foreign funding.” The case file also includes “reports by state experts” evaluating the confiscated items. "One piece of evidence we found was a map showing Egypt divided into four parts: Upper Egypt, the Delta, Greater Cairo and the Canal provinces," Abou Zeid said. While he didn't explain the significance of such maps in proving the case, the accusation reflects claims made by some TV personnel and officials that there is a foreign plot to divide Egypt. Abou Zeid said the five NGOs are not involved in civil service, but their work extends to politics, which took a different direction after the Jan. 25 uprising. "Many eyewitnesses who used to work for these NGOs testified that they quit once they doubted the nature of the work of these foreign organizations," Abou Zeid claimed. "They told us surveys were conducted across the country by these NGOs asking Egyptians about their religious beliefs and their dress codes," he added. Egyptians have to state their religious affiliation on ID cards. "The results of these surveys are never published in Egypt, but are secretly reported to their mother organizations in the US," the judge said. “Homeland Security and National Security” refused to give licenses to these organizations before the revolution but they continued to operate illegally, he added. "This part of the probe is only related to the foreign NGOs, while the remaining local NGOs are [also] under investigation, including religious organizations that receive illegal funding from Arab countries," investigating judge El-Ashmawy said. He added that the other stages of the investigation will be made public once they are finished to ensure maximum transparency. The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) criticized earlier in a statement the campaign against NGOs, labeling it a plot planned by the ruling military junta to tarnish the reputation of rights organizations that have worked to expose violations by the military since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak in 2011. "[The campaign casts] doubt over the real role played by these organizations and defames them, using one of the most prominent figures of the Mubarak regime, Fayza Aboul Naga, who found in this campaign an opportunity for vengeance [targeting] the human rights institutions that contributed to toppling the regime to which she belongs, ," the statement said. 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. "ANHRI believes that the practices of US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson have paved the way for and fueled the campaign led by Aboul Naga against civil society. The ambassador breached rules of transparency and credibility by refusing to announce the names of the institutions that received millions of dollars from the US during the year 2011, despite the many requests submitted to her to announce these names," ANHRI said. "The ambassador knows very well that several civil society institutions in Egypt, especially the serious human rights ones, refuse to deal with her as a representative of a government known for its repetitive human rights violations and lack of credibility for its double standards … which is the US government."
