WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday its lawyers have received from Egyptian prosecutors a 24-page document that includes formal charges against US citizens working for pro-democracy groups in Egypt. The deputy prosecutor general also confirmed that Egypt's court of appeals now has the investigative file, which includes the charging document and related evidence, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "However, the chief judge has not yet assigned the case to a criminal court, nor has any trial date been set," Nuland told reporters. US officials are now translating the document that contains charges against 43 people, Nuland said without being able to confirm how many Americans are among those charged. Egyptian judicial sources said earlier this month that 43 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 have been banned from leaving the country. The impending trials have deepened a rift between the traditional allies, with US lawmakers including top senators John Kerry and John McCain warning that the crackdown could jeopardize more than $1 billion in annual US aid to Egypt. "In this period we are continuing to work as hard as we can with the Egyptian government to work our way through this," Nuland said. "And we continue to insist that our people have done nothing wrong, and that they ought to be allowed to come home," she added. 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.
