WASHINGTON: The United States said Wednesday it has obtained a document outlining the formal charges against US citizens working for pro-democracy groups in Egypt. "We now have a formal charging document," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at a daily briefing, adding that the document of more than 100 pages in Arabic had been received several hours before. By the time of the briefing, "we were still working through it, both as a translation issue and as a legal matter, to understand exactly what is expected in this charging document of individual Americans," Nuland said. Nuland said she did not know whether the US embassy in Cairo obtained a "copy directly from the Egyptians or through the lawyers or the organizations that are affected." Egyptian judicial sources said Sunday that 44 people, including 19 Americans, would stand trial over the alleged illegal funding of non-government organizations promoting Egypt's fledgling democracy. The aid workers are accused of "setting up branches of international organizations in Egypt without a license from the Egyptian government" and of "receiving illegal foreign funding." Several of the Americans had previously been banned from leaving the country. Cairo prosecutors in December stormed the offices of the US-funded International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House as part of a probe into allegations of illegal foreign funding. They were among 17 offices of local and international NGOs raided. The crackdown was part of a wider campaign by Egypt's military rulers to silence dissent after months of criticism of its human rights record, analysts said. Saying there was no basis for the probes into the NGOs, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned that US aid to Egypt will be reviewed amid the standoff with Egypt over its crackdown on US non-government organizations. The State Department has said funds could be withheld under a bill enacted in December that linked the aid to democratic progress. The legislation offers Egypt $250 million in economic aid, and provides the authority to forgive up to $500 million of debt to the United States. It also provides for $1.3 billion in annual military aid, but Egypt's military leaders must convince Clinton they are backing the transition to civilian rule.
