Prosecution recommends rejecting appeal in foreign funding case

CAIRO – 1 February 2018: The court of appeal will hold on Thursday appeal hearings of 16 defendants charged in the 2011 foreign funding case after the prosecution appeal had submitted an advisory opinion not to consider the appeal submitted by five defendants.

The prosecution appeal provided the court of appeal an advisory opinion not to consider the appeal submitted by five defendants who were sentenced to two years in prison as they have not submitted themselves to the implementation of the judgment.

The case sentenced 43 defendants including 14 Egyptians and 29 American, European and Arab defendants who are charged of taking $60 million foreign funds from rights organizations and NGOs working in Egypt without license to use it in banned activities and in violating the states’ policy starting from March 2011.

Cairo Criminal Court, headed by Consultant Makram Awad, sentenced in June 2013 27 defendants of five-year- prison in absentia, including 18 Americans and other foreigners, who are officials in foreign organizations in Egypt.

The court also sentenced five others with two-year-sentence including an American, German and three Egyptians defendants, who submitted the appeal to the judgment and 11 others with a one-year-suspended sentence and LE 1,000 fines.

It also dissolved and confiscated the funds of International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute, Freedom House, International Center for Journalists and Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The investigations revealed that the defendants have run unlicensed international organizations to politically train parties, do survey on random samples of citizens and mobilize voters for parliamentary elections without license and prepare reports to send them to the head center in the United States.