On 4 June the Cairo Criminal Court convicted 43 non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers for working at unregistered NGOs and receiving illegal foreign funding. 27 of the workers, including 15 Americans, received five year prison sentences. The Court also ordered the closure of five international NGOs (Freedom House; the International Republican Institute; the National Democratic Institute; the International Center for Journalists; and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung) which were operating in Egypt.
Of the 43 defendants, none are expected to go to prison. Those facing imminent threat have all fled the country and the Egyptians involved received suspended sentences. All of the defendants are expected to appeal the decision.
This judgment was based on penal code provisions dating back to the time of former president Hosni Mubarak which, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), are vaguely worded and often interpreted to impose severe restrictions on the right to freedom of association.
In April 2011, two months after Mubarak lost power, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) had distributed $65million among NGOs in Egypt. These funds had not been channelled through the Egyptian Ministry for International Cooperation, as required under Egyptian law. Therefore these funds were illegal. The NGOs involved were already in legal limbo as they had formally applied to operate in Egypt but their applications had neither been accepted nor rejected.
This case has been of interest to the international community since December 2011 when the offices of the NGOs involved were raided by Egyptian security forces. These raids were part of a “fact-finding” mission initiated by the Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation to investigate foreign funded NGOs. During the raids, documents were seized and the NGOs’ assets were frozen. The NGOs were accused of violating Egyptian sovereignty by supporting political opposition and promoting protests using illegal funds.
Following these earlier restrictions on NGOs, in March 2013 the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) submitted a draft NGO law to Egypt’s Shura Council, the partially appointed upper house of the Egyptian parliament. The draft law, which was rushed through the consideration phase, imposes harsh restrictions on the registration and operation of foreign NGOs. It allows the government to prohibit NGO activity based on violations of national sovereignty. If approved by the presidency, the law would become final despite there being no fully elected body in place to deliberate the proposed law.
While the current regime, under Mohamed Morsi, was not responsible for bringing proceedings in this case, the draft NGO law and the regime’s acceptance of this verdict indicates a continuation of the restrictions imposed on civil society under Mubarak. Many of these restrictions were implemented indirectly under Mubarak’s reign. According to this Al Monitor article, the draft NGO law proposes that these restrictions become the legal standard. Bradley Hope, writing in The National, has observed that the convictions are likely to renew discussions of cancelling US aid to Egypt which initially quietened down after the accused NGO workers fled the country.
Click here to read a Freedom House article on the draft NGO law.