CAIRO - The North Cairo Criminal Court Sunday starts the trial of 43 pro-democracy activists, including around 20 American citizens, from mostly US civil society groups on the alleged charges of working illegally in Egypt, judicial sources said Saturday. The sources said that the 43 accused persons, including Egyptians, Americans, Germans, Palestinians, Norwegians and Serbs, were to appear at the court to face the charges of working in the country without proper legal registration, receiving illicit foreign funding, interfering in Egypt's internal affairs and carrying out political activities unrelated to their civil society work. The suspects denied these charges, which could lead to prison sentences of five years, they said. The suspects had been banned from leaving Egypt and some took refuge in the US Embassy in Cairo. On Thursday, Cairo International Airport authorities stopped a 56-year-old American woman, Mary Elizabeth Whitehead, from boarding a flight to Germany because she was facing trial over illegal funding of civil society groups. Whitehead, who had taken no luggage with her, tried to board the plane minutes before it was due to take off but was ordered to turn back by airport security officials. Negad el-Borai, who represents some of the American defendants, said he did not expect them to appear in court. "I don't expect them to appear in in today's session," he said. Among those accused is Sam LaHood, Egypt director of the Internatioanl Republican Institute and the son of the US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The case, which was initiated by the prosecution, has caused a crisis in relations between Cairo and Washington, with Congress warning it may cut its $1.5 billion in annual aid to Egypt . On December 29, 2011, investigators raided the offices of 17 civil society groups in Cairo, confiscating computers and other equipment and seizing cash and documents. The groups raided were the IRI and the National Democratic Institute, both democracy-building groups loosely affiliated with the US political parties, as well as the human rights group Freedom House, the International Center for Journalists, and the German Konrad-Adenauer Foundation. The democracy groups' leaders denied their activists had done anything improper or illegal. The spat is one of the worst in more than 30 years of close US-Egyptian ties and has complicated Washington's efforts to establish relations with the military council that took power from Hosni Mubarak after his overthrow in a popular revolt a year ago. A delegation of US lawmakers, headed by Senator John McCain, visited Cairo last week and met with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). Senator McCain said that Field Marshal Tantawi, was working 'diligently' to resolve the issue. Earlier in the month, the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Dr. Faiza Abul Naga, has linked US funding of civil society initiatives to an American plot to undermine Egypt. Minister Abul Naga had told investigating judges that Washington funded the groups to cause "chaos" in Egypt. "The United States and Israel could not create a state of chaos and work to maintain it in Egypt directly, so they used direct funding to organizations, especially American, as a means of implementing these goals," she said in her testimony. On Thursday, Cairo International Airport authorities stopped a 56-year-old American woman, Mary Elizabeth Whitehead, from boarding a flight to Germany because she was facing trial over illegal funding of civil society groups. Whitehead, who had taken no luggage with her, tried to board the plane minutes before it was due to take off but was ordered to turn back by airport security officials.
