Egypt Acquits 75 Civil Society Organizations of 'Foreign Funding' Charges: What are the Reasons and Objectives?

Suddenly, on August 22, 2023, the Cairo Court of Appeals decided to drop the investigation against 75 civil society organizations out of a total of 85.

The Ministry of Justice affirmed that this action leads to the cancellation of all travel bans, airport and port watchlists, and asset freezes. It clarified that some of the remaining ten organizations are still under investigation, while others are close to completion.

Observers believe this approach aims to mend relations with Western powers as the upcoming presidential elections in 2024 draw near.

 

No Convictions

In a statement on the matter, the Egyptian Ministry of Justice stated that the newly appointed investigating judge in the foreign funding case from the Cairo Court of Appeals announced that the case involves 85 organizations, with investigations completed for 75 of them.

The ministry announced that the 75 organizations that have completed investigations have received orders of dismissal due to the lack of grounds for criminal prosecution. Consequently, all travel bans, watchlists, and asset freezes have been canceled.

According to the statement, which did not disclose the names of any organizations, investigations are nearing completion for some of the remaining ten organizations, as reported by the official Middle East News Agency.

The foreign funding case dates back to 2011, during the rule of the military council led by the late Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. During that time, dozens of foreign and Egyptian civil society organizations were accused of receiving foreign funding.

Foreign nationals were subsequently deported under an agreement between the military council and Western countries, while Egyptians were detained, as human rights activists suggested.

In February 2012, the Cairo Court of Appeals decided to lift the travel ban imposed on foreign defendants in the case after each posted bail of two million Egyptian pounds.

At that time, nine Americans and eight defendants of other nationalities left Egypt on a private American plane.

Over the course of 12 years, dozens of asset freezes and travel bans were issued against employees of civil society organizations. However, most of those subject to travel bans or asset freezes had their investigations dropped.

Sentences were issued against some of the defendants, as in June 2013, when 27 defendants were sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.

Among them were 18 Americans and others of various nationalities, all of whom held positions in foreign organizations in Egypt.

The court also sentenced five others, including an American and a German, along with three Egyptians, to two years in prison.

11 other Egyptian defendants were sentenced to one year in prison with a suspended sentence and fined one thousand Egyptian pounds each.

However, the Court of Cassation overturned the prison sentences against 16 defendants, including three Americans, in the "foreign funding" case on April 5, 2018, according to Reuters. They were ordered to be retried by a different chamber of the Cairo Criminal Court.

This retrial ultimately led to their acquittal by the Cairo Criminal Court, which acquitted all 43 foreign and Egyptian defendants on December 20, 2018, resulting in the cancellation of all travel bans, watchlists, and asset freezes issued in connection with these investigations.

 

What Does the Decision Mean?

The decision comes after a series of similar decisions to close the foreign funding file, coinciding with European and American pressures.

However, the irony is that the Ministry of Justice's statement in 2023 is the same as what the judge in charge of the civil society organizations file announced in 2021.

Back then, the investigating judge, Counselor Ali Mokhtar, issued consecutive decisions to dismiss criminal charges against 75 entities due to insufficient evidence or the absence of a crime.

The latest decision was made in October 2021 concerning the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies (ICDS), the Development Institutionalization Support Center (DISC), the Peace Association for Human Development, and Nazra for Feminist Studies.

Despite this, human rights activists argue that the Ministry of Justice's statement and the Egyptian judiciary's politically motivated rulings in the foreign funding case confirm once again that the prosecution's investigations in most political and human rights cases are fabricated and false.

They emphasize that judicial rulings are politically motivated and issued by phone, with the authorities exploiting the judiciary to settle scores with their opponents and improve their international relations.

While Egyptian authorities claim that the Egyptian judiciary is "independent" and deny any allegations of it being "politicized," observers believe that the Ministry of Justice's decisions are a clear indication of Sisi's concession to foreign pressure, possibly in exchange for aid to prop up his regime or for mutual benefits and interests.

The verdict also signifies that the state apparatus and the media have been misleading Egyptians since 2011, when they accused these foreigners and Egyptians of threatening national security by defending human rights.

They were accused of receiving millions of dollars, and even though part of this accusation is true, the court denied it with this ruling.

These rulings and decisions also confirm that former Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Aboulnaga fabricated the case in collaboration with the former military council in 2011.

The current military council, led by Sisi, released them as part of a deal with the West.

Fox News commented in February 2012 on the fact that the military council allowed the convicted American defendants to travel, confirming that the case involving these organizations had been "politicized" from the outset and had no connection to the Egyptian judiciary.

They mentioned that the military council (Tantawi's council) blamed external parties for its failure to manage the transitional phase in Egypt.

Dr. al-Said Abu al-Kheir, a professor of international law, affirmed that foreign pressures were the reason behind Egypt's acquittal of 75 out of 85 civil society organizations from "foreign funding."

He explained to Al-Estiklal that he does not believe Egypt conducted any genuine investigations with these organizations "from the beginning" or that the investigations were formal and dropped directly.

He pointed out that the Sisi regime is likely bowing to American and European pressures, possibly in exchange for aid, but he stated, "Sisi offers his services proactively, without waiting to be asked."

 

Nothing New!

Despite the media enthusiasm and the praise from parties loyal to the regime regarding Egypt's human rights file progress after closing investigations into 75 organizations, rights activists believe that the Ministry of Justice's statement does not bring anything new.

They argue that the information provided by the ministry about "foreign funding" was already announced two years ago, in 2021, and there is nothing new in that, except for the continued travel bans on rights activists (in the ten most important organizations whose cases have not been decided) and their frozen assets.

The statement from the Ministry of Justice was seen as a sign of the government's lack of seriousness in fully closing the case. Critics emphasized that even after 12 years since the case was initiated, the government is still talking about organizations that will remain on the blacklist.

Hossam Bahgat, an Egyptian human rights activist and the founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who has been banned from traveling due to this case since 2016, expressed through his account on the social media platform that the Ministry of Justice's statement "does not bring anything new."

He added that seven acquittals were issued in the case, with the latest one in October 2021, and that the Ministry of Justice had previously issued a statement in 2021 confirming that 75 organizations had been cleared, with 10 still under investigation. Now, after two years, they are repeating the same information.

Bahgat expressed surprise at how the press and members of the presidential pardon committee received the Ministry of Justice's statement as if it contained new information about the lifting of restrictions on 75 civil society organizations and human rights activists.

He pointed out that this information about the 75 organizations having their frozen accounts unfrozen and their names removed from travel bans and asset freezes dates back to more than two years ago.

So, what is new? And to whom is the Ministry of Justice addressing its statement?

Bahgat also told "Mada Masr" on August 23 that instead of providing a minimum date for handling the investigations into the ten organizations, the Ministry of Justice's statement mentioned that their fate is not the same.

Some organizations will receive decisions soon, while others will remain on the blacklist indefinitely.

He believed that "this message contradicts what the General Coordinator of the National Dialogue, Diaa Rashwan, promised in May 2023, that the case would be closed soon."

Meanwhile, Gamal Eid, the director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, described the ministry's statement as a "hollow statement," explaining that "its purpose is to convey to foreign entities that there are actions on the ground regarding civil society organizations contrary to reality."

Eid told Mada Masr that the former investigating judge, Ali Mokhtar, summoned several human rights activists in July and August 2021 for the first time in the case. However, there was no real investigation, only general questions about the case.

He clarified that the investigating judge called him at the end of July 2021 and asked him to choose a suitable time to begin the investigation, "but that time has not come until today," according to Eid.

Officials from El-Nadeem Center Against Violence and Torture also confirmed to Mada Masr that they have not been notified of any practical changes in their legal status or regarding the case known as the "foreign funding" case, despite the fact that the center is among the ten organizations mentioned in the Ministry of Justice's statement, and two of its directors are on travel ban lists.

On August 14, 2023, lawyer Negad el-Borai told Al-Youm Al-Sabea that he expects the "foreign funding" case to be closed definitively before the discussions of the Human Rights Committee in the National Dialogue begin.

Prior to that, el-Borai told "Mada Masr" at the end of July 2021 that the investigating judge, Counselor Ali Mokhtar, informed him that the investigations with all the defendants in the case would conclude within the next two weeks during an interrogation session with him back then.

The case dates back to December 2011 when authorities raided the offices of 17 civil society organizations operating in Egypt, detained some of their employees, and seized their assets.

The prosecution then referred 43 employees of these organizations, including 27 foreigners, to trial in February 2012 on charges that included "receiving funds from abroad with the intent to commit acts harmful to national interests or undermining the country's independence or unity, and managing associations without a license."

The case was divided into two parts, one involving foreign organizations operating in Egypt, which was concluded in December 2018 with the acquittal of all foreign defendants. The other part concerns local organizations and is still under investigation.

 

Submission to the West

When the Egyptian military council retreated in 2012 and released American and European detainees in connection with the foreign funding case, Fox News asserted in February 2012 that this was achieved through American economic pressures.

It stated that Washington applied pressure on the Egyptian government by threatening to cut military aid amounting to 1.3 billion dollars, in addition to economic assistance amounting to 250 million dollars.

In one of his books, Mostafa Bakry, a journalist close to the Egyptian regime, stated that the lifting of travel bans on foreign defendants in the case "came amid international campaigns against the detention of Egyptian activists and economic threats."

One month after Joe Biden won the U.S. presidency on November 6, 2020, the Egyptian judge responsible for investigating the "foreign funding" case for civil society organizations cleared dozens of organizations of legal prosecution.

On four consecutive occasions, Judge Ali Mokhtar dropped criminal charges against 63 civil society organizations and 160 of their members, with the latest being the preservation of investigations into 5 civil society associations accused of receiving illegal foreign funding on June 20, 2021.

The last person to be interviewed by the investigating judge in the foreign funding case on July 29, 2021, was Hossam Bahgat, the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who met with the U.S. Secretary of State on April 20, 2021, to discuss the human rights crisis and met with him again in January 2023.

When the Egyptian judiciary acquitted all the defendants in the foreign funding case on December 20, 2018, this came just one week after the European Parliament demanded on December 12, 2018, that the Egyptian authorities drop all criminal investigations that have no basis in the work of non-governmental organizations.

At that time, the European Parliament condemned the Sisi regime for fabricating charges against Egyptian and foreign human rights activists in the foreign funding case.

Subsequently, the Cairo Criminal Court issued a verdict of acquittal for all 43 defendants after previous sentences had sentenced them to imprisonment, confirming that the conviction was "a political judgment" and the acquittal was also "political."

In July 2023, one month before the recent statement from the Department of Justice, nine U.S. Senators called for withholding $320 million in American aid to Egypt until human rights conditions improved and political detainees were released.

The Associated Press confirmed on July 28 that nine prominent Democratic senators in the Senate and independent member Bernie Sanders urged President Biden's administration to withhold part of the annual military aid to Egypt for the third year in a row, amounting to 320 million dollars.

They emphasized the importance of continuing pressure on Abdel Fattah el-Sisi regarding human rights violations, his crackdown on civil society, and withholding aid before the legal deadline set for September 30, 2023.

More than 20 prominent American and international human rights groups and research centers separately echoed the call made by members of Congress to President Biden, affirming that el-Sisi uses the withholding of some aid to make limited and cosmetic improvements, then returns to repression.

In recent years, Congress has suspended about 300 million dollars in U.S. military aid to the Egyptian government, contingent on progress in the human rights field, although the U.S. State Department can partially bypass this requirement for national security reasons.

In September 2021, the United States withheld 130 million dollars in military aid to Egypt, with the Biden administration stating that it would not release the funds until the Sisi government met a set of human rights demands.

According to observers, Sisi had resisted linking the foreign funding case and human rights issues to U.S. aid, but he is currently beginning to retreat due to the economic crisis hitting Egypt and undermining its current regime as its resolution is tied to Western or Gulf external support.