Outrage as Egypt Court Sentences 43 NGO Workers, Kerry Says 'Politically Motivated'
A Cairo court on Tuesday sentenced 43 Egyptian and foreign NGO workers to jail terms ranging from one to five years for working illegally, causing outrage abroad and raising fears for the future of civil society work.
The sentences follow trials which came in the wake of raids in 2011 on the offices of foreign NGOs, many which had operated without licences under ousted president Hosni Mubarak but which the new authorities deemed were receiving funds illicitly.
The criminal court sentenced 27 defendants in absentia to five years.
Five defendants who were present in the country, including one American, were sentenced to two years behind bars and ordered to pay a fine of 1,000 Egyptian pounds (almost $145.)
The remaining 11 were each given one-year suspended sentences.
The court also ordered the permanent closure of the branches of the NGOs where the staffers worked.
These include U.S.-based organizations Freedom House, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, as well as Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
The defendants, who were charged with receiving illicit foreign funds and operating without a licence, have said they will appeal the sentences.
The verdict caused an outcry abroad, with Germany expressing anger.
"We are outraged and deeply concerned over the stiff judgments against staff of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Cairo and the ordered closure of the office," said Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
"The action by the Egyptian justice is alarming. It weakens civil society as an important pillar of democracy in a new democratic Egypt."
Germany said it had summoned Egypt's charge d'affaires in Berlin to express its "serious concern" over the matter. The Egyptian ambassador was out of the country.
"It is incomprehensible that employees of a German public foundation be criminally prosecuted," said the foreign ministry.
Freedom House slammed what it called a "witch-hunt".
"This whole case was a disgrace from the very beginning, and the verdict makes a mockery of the Egyptian judicial process," said Freedom House president David J. Kramer.
"It is motivated purely by corrupt and anti-democratic behavior and a determination to shut down civil society. None of those indicted did anything wrong."
Last year's crackdown on foreign NGOs led to a crisis in relations between Egypt and Washington, which Cairo had tried to defuse by allowing some activists to leave the country, including Sam LaHood, the son of U.S. transport secretary Ray LaHood.
Until then, Washington had hinted putting the activists on trial could jeopardize its more than one billion dollars in annual aid to Egypt, much of it to the military.
The verdict comes as Egypt debates a newly proposed law regulating NGOs that has been sharply criticized by civil society groups.
"Today's Egypt NGO verdict -- an unjust verdict based on an unjust law, and the new draft NGO law would not produce a different outcome," said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch.
President Mohamed Morsi, who referred the NGO bill to the Islamist-dominated senate last week, pledged he "does not aspire to control civil society," in a departure from Mubarak's strongman tactics.
Morsi insists he must reform a corrupt bureaucracy and instill transparency, and his aides say the bill was drafted in that spirit.
But many NGOs wary of the Islamist president say it is an attempt to assert control over the foreign funding of projects such as human rights advocacy.
The draft law would "curb the right to freedom of association through legal restrictions even more severe than those imposed by the Mubarak regime," said a statement signed by 40 NGOs.
Western powers such as the United States, a major funder of NGOs in Egypt, are closely monitoring the issue.
In a statement, the State Department said it was "concerned" by the civil society draft law which "imposes significant government controls and restrictions on the activities and funding of civic groups".
Secretary of State John Kerry also voiced his concern over the sentences.
"This decision runs contrary to the universal principle of freedom of association and is incompatible with the transition to democracy," Kerry said in a statement after the court ordered jail terms of between one to five years.
"The United States is deeply concerned by the guilty verdicts and sentences, including the suspended sentences, handed down by an Egyptian court today against 43 NGO representatives in what was a politically-motivated trial."
"Civic groups and international NGOs play a legitimate role in any democracy and are critical to advancing freedoms... and acting as appropriate checks on the government," the top U.S. diplomat insisted in his sharply-worded statement.
"I urge the government of Egypt to work with civic groups as they respond to the Egyptian people's aspirations for democracy as guaranteed in Egypt's new constitution."
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she "fears that the draft law still contains elements that can unnecessarily constrain the work of NGOs in Egypt and hinder our capacity as a foreign donor to support their work."
"The draft law has to be in line with international standards and obligations of Egypt," she said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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