New NGO trial begins in Cairo

A new trial of democracy activists begins in Cairo on Thursday, after the previous judges dropped out and the foreign defendants left the country when a travel ban was lifted. The case against 43 defendants -- 16 Egyptians and 27 foreign nationals -- in which the activists were accused of receiving illicit foreign funds to operate unlicensed NGOs, caused a crisis in relations between the United States and its close ally Egypt. After months of pressure from Washington, 13 of the foreign defendants including six Americans, were allowed to fly out of Cairo airport after posting bail last week, sparking outrage in Egypt. Other foreign defendants were already out of the country. The travel ban was lifted after the trial judges rescued themselves due to what they said was intervention by the authorities. Human Rights Watch has urged Egypt to drop the charges against the non-governmental groups, which include National Democratic Institute, International Republican Institute and Freedom House. "Egypt's judges have in the past protected non-governmental groups and dismissed politicised charges against dissidents," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch in a statement on Thursday. "This is an opportunity to end a politicised saga by throwing out the case while parliament drafts a new law that will decriminalise peaceful activity by non-governmental groups," he said. The group said the outrage caused by the lifting of the travel ban should not be "grounds to punish the workers." The United States said last week it remained concerned over the issue, but stressed its commitment to strong ties with Egypt. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also said that Washington still wanted the case dismissed. "We will continue to work with the Egyptian government to see if we can get this case dismissed, not only for our people but also for the Egyptians, because we think this case was unwarranted from the beginning," she said. Washington had suggested the trial could imperil its more than one billion dollars in annual aid to Egypt, much of it funnelled to the ruling military which took power after an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak a year ago.