The report said the defendants have been charged with founding and managing offices of international organizations without Egyptian licenses and with receiving foreign funding. The groups’ operations “infringe on Egyptian sovereignty,” it said. By BEN HUBBARD ADVERTISING Associated Press CAIRO
By BEN HUBBARD
Associated Press
CAIRO — Egypt said Saturday the criminal trial of 16 Americans and 27 others will start Feb. 26 in a politically charged case against foreign-funded pro-democracy groups that has badly shaken Cairo’s ties with Washington.
The trial represents an escalation in what has become the deepest crisis in U.S.-Egypt relations in decades. American officials have threatened to cut $1.5 billion in aid over the spat, and high-level officials have flown in to seek a solution. Egyptian authorities have responded by blasting what they call U.S. meddling in legal affairs.
The growing spat also shows the uncertain path Egypt’s military rulers are charting more than one year after a popular uprising pushed President Hosni Mubarak from power. During his nearly 30-year rule, the U.S. tolerated Mubarak’s antidemocratic policies and continued to fund his government, knowing he’d uphold Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.
Now, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces regularly accuses “foreign hands” of backing continued protests against its rule, and the Islamist parties that control about two-thirds of the newly elected parliament have threatened to review the peace treaty with Israel.
The investigation into the pro-democracy and rights groups fits into the wider campaign against alleged foreign influence since Mubarak’s ouster.
The probe began in December, when armed security forces raided the offices of 10 nonprofit groups, shuttering their offices after carting off files and computers.
Egypt’s state news agency said Saturday the trial of 43 defendants in the case will begin Feb. 26. The report said 16 of the defendants are Egyptians and 19 are Americans, and the rest are Germans, Palestinians and Jordanians. The U.S. State Department, however, has said there are only 16 Americans facing trial.
The report said the defendants have been charged with founding and managing offices of international organizations without Egyptian licenses and with receiving foreign funding. The groups’ operations “infringe on Egyptian sovereignty,” it said.
