NGO workers under criminal investigation in Egypt leave country after bail is paid

By Leila Fadel and William Wan, Updated: Thursday, March 1, 2:16 PM
The Washington Post

CAIRO — The foreign nationals under criminal investigation here for their pro-democracy activities, including several Americans, arrived in Cyprus on a chartered flight from Cairo on Thursday night in what could be the end of a months-long diplomatic drama between Cairo and Washington.

A senior Egyptian judge said earlier that a travel ban imposed on the seven Americans and other foreign employees of nongovernment organizations implicated in the case had been lifted after the payment of bail, the state-run newspaper Ahram reported on its Web site.

Only six of the seven Americans charged were on the flight Thursday, according to an NGO official familiar with the case, who said that Robert Becker of the National Democratic Institute chose not to get on the plane, although he is free to leave.

Egypt had barred the Americans and at least two European citizens from leaving after authorities raided the Cairo offices of several foreign-funded NGOs in December. Egyptian authorities accused the groups of operating illegally, sowing unrest and working to carry out a U.S. plot to destroy Egypt.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday that the United States is pleased Egypt decided to lift the travel ban, but she noted that their departure doesn’t resolve the legal cases or the broader problem of Egypt’s crackdown on NGOs.

“We remain deeply concerned about the prosecution of NGOS in Egypt and the ultimate outcome of the legal process,” she said.

A new trial date is expected to be set on Saturday, according to a senior judge quoted in Ahram.

In addition to the Americans, those on the plane Thursday included Norwegian, Serbian, Palestianian and German NGO workers who until their departure had been staying in their embassies. Three American employees of the International Republican Institute (IRI), including Sam LaHood, the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, had been taking refuge in the U.S. Embassy.

IRI issued a statement Thursday welcoming the decision to lift the travel ban, saying it was “hopeful that the charges against its expatriate and local Egyptian staff will be dismissed.”

The organization noted, however, that in addition to the Americans and the Europeans, there are several Egyptians who worked for the U.S. and foreign NGOs and are still facing charges. Fourteen Egyptians are being prosecuted, according to the State Middle East News Agency.

“IRI views the decision as a positive development but remains very concerned about the situation and our Egyptian employees along with the continuing investigations of Egyptian civil society groups and the impact it will have on Egypt’s ability to move forward with the democratic transition that so many Egyptians have sought,” its statement said.

Charles Dunne, the Middle East director for Freedom House, which is contesting criminal charges against four of its Egyptian workers, said Thursday’s development was welcome but incomplete.

“If seven Americans do get out, that’s terrific, but we also hope it’s just the start of something more that happens,” he said. “And even beyond that, this defuses the immediate possibility of defunding on the Hill, but there’s still a lot unresolved. You have 400 Egyptian organizations caught up in this too, they have not yet been charged, but that certainly could be coming. What happens to the work of civil society as a whole in Egypt?”

Also in question is whether any of the 43 NGO workers facing charges, including at least 16 Americans, can ever return to Egypt. Dunne, who frequently works in Egypt but currently lives and works in the Washington region, was charged in absentia and labeled a fugitive.

“It’s not clear if and when any of us can return,” he said.

The trial began Sunday, but none of the foreign NGO workers charged attended the hearing. On Tuesday, the three judges overseeing the case withdrew abruptly without explanation, and on Wednesday, Egyptian officials reportedly agreed to lift the travel ban after intense negotiations with U.S. officials.

Nuland said Thursday that the State Department had sent legal experts to Egypt in recent weeks to work with the judiciary there to find a solution to the case, adding that at the request of the individuals’ attorneys, the judiciary agreed to waive the travel ban if bail was posted.

“None of these people who have departed were in custody, none were subject to arrest warrant,” she said, adding that the legal case remains in place and that whether those charged return “will be an issue each one of them will have to make a decision about.”

Bail for the defendants was set at 2 million Egyptian pounds (about $332,000) each, according to judicial officials and defense lawyers involved in the case. Nuland declined to confirm the amount paid for the Americans and said the NGOs wrote the checks themselves and that the U.S. government did not contribute. She acknowledged, though, that in general the government supplies the NGOs with much of their funding.

Many of the Egyptian NGO workers under investigation said Thursday that they want the court proceedings to continue and to be acquitted of all charges. Nancy Okail, the Egypt director for D.C.-based Freedom House, said that the political nature of the case has already compromised the independence of Egypt’s judicial system, which had been seen publicly as relatively independent.

While she is happy that the Americans and foreigners involved in the case have been allowed to leave, she said, she predicted a backlash from Egyptians who see the development as the executive interfering in the judiciary and caving to American pressure.

“Taking a political case to court is actually insulting the Egyptian judiciary,” Okail said, accusing Fayza Abou el-Naga, the minister of planning and international cooperation, of using the courts for political ends. “The biggest loser here is the judicial system, and it’s shaken to the core.”

“The Egyptian judiciary looks pathetic and weak, and this is a slap in the face to every judge who called for independence,” she said.

Correspondent Ernesto Londoño in Cairo and staff writer William Wan in Washington contributed to this report.

A federal judge’s e-mail spreads racist venom about Obama.

Posted at 12:30 PM ET, 03/01/2012
By Colbert I. King
WP

“A little boy said to his mother, ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white?’ His mother replied, ‘ Don’t even go there, Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!’ ”

That racist joke about President Obama, his mother and bestiality wasn’t told by some backwoods white supremacist sporting Ku Klux Klan regalia. The Great Falls Tribune reports that “joke” was contained in an e-mail forwarded to six friends, called “old buddies,” by Richard Cebull, the chief U.S. district judge of Montana. The e-mail was sent, from all places, from Cebull’s judicial chambers.

Confronted by what he had done, the judge, an 11-year member of the federal bench, told the Tribune, “I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is. I sent it out because it’s anti-Obama.” Judge Cebull admits to having exercised poor judgment but professes he’s no racist. But who cares about his self-assessment.

In a column last week, I wrote about the extraordinary venom directed at Obama by his political opponents. It drew some expected responses from readers who contend that Obama is drawing fire because of his policies, not his race. What’s the alibi this time?

This was the act of a federal judge.

The real action, in this case, lies in the reaction. He was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush. What does Bush think now? How about the U.S. Senate that confirmed Cebull? Or Republican presidential candidates who seek to replace Obama? What say the judge’s peers, the Judicial Conference, the chief justice?

What say the people of Montana? What say Americans?

Just kidding?

Egypt trial threatens future of U.S. pro-democracy NGOs

McClatchy Washington Bureau
Posted on Fri, Feb. 24, 2012
David Goldstein | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: February 25, 2012 10:59:30 AM

WASHINGTON — A trial set for Sunday in Egypt of at least 16 Americans could have far-reaching implications for the pro-democracy movement that has been sweeping the Middle East.

Barring some last-minute flourish of face-saving diplomacy, it also could mean a setback to the U.S. government's efforts since the Cold War to combat authoritarian regimes and to promote human rights.

The Americans are employees of four U.S.-based non-governmental organizations, known as NGOs. They have been assisting Egyptian groups with election reforms, voter education and other civil society programs.

But they have been charged with operating without government approval and interfering in local politics, along with more than two dozen others from Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Germany. The charges could lead to prison sentences of five years.

"It can have a chilling effect on the way NGOs, which are already under pressure in a lot of these countries, operate," said Charles Dunne, director for Middle East and North Africa programs for Freedom House, a human rights and democracy advocacy group, and among the NGOs that Egyptian authorities raided in December and seized files.

Already in Bahrain, a top military leader in the small Persian Gulf kingdom has accused 22 mostly U.S-based NGOs of plotting against the government. Home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, Bahrain, like Egypt, is a key Middle East ally.

The others NGOs facing charges in Egypt are the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and the International Center for Journalists. A fifth, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, is based in Germany.

Dunne was among the Americans ordered to appear in court, but he remains in the U.S. and has no intention of showing up.

A former diplomat who served in Cairo and elsewhere in the region, he said, "If Egypt is able to repress these NGOs, that's going to embolden them and other governments in the region to do more of the same."

The number of international NGOs has ballooned over the past two decades, from 6,000 in 1990 to more than 50,000 in 2006, according to the Yearbook of International Organizations.

The National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute grew out of a speech that President Ronald Reagan gave to the British Parliament in 1982.

He called for "a crusade for freedom" that would "move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny."

Congress created the two party-based NGOs a year later to promote human rights and democracy abroad. Both operate programs in dozens of nations around the globe and were working on voter education and government oversight projects in Egypt.

They are politically well connected, with current and former members of Congress and government sitting on their respective boards. But Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute, said their work abroad is nonpartisan.

"We support a process, not ideologies," he said. "We don't go in and choose winners."

Officials with the International Republican Institute declined to comment because of the pending trial.

The bulk of both organizations' money comes from tax dollars. The Democratic NGO received $120 million from the U.S. government last year; the Republican NGO, $75 million.

Most NGOs rely largely on private donations. Several officials whose groups also receive government support, to one degree or another, said they are not arms of the State Department carrying out the official aims of U.S. foreign policy. But they said their work serves the national interest.

"We represent a convergence of the strategic and moral interests of the United States," Wollack said.

Sam Worthington, president and CEO of InterAction, an alliance of nearly 200 American NGOs that works around the world, said they are independent but try to align with American foreign policy "when we can."

He said the core mission for many NGOs is promoting civil society, which he described as "a more accountable society focused on the well-being of its citizens."

They can be as big and far reaching in their pursuits as well-known organizations like Habitat for Humanity and CARE, or small, volunteer groups that organize to help around natural disasters, like the Haiti earthquake two years ago.

They help set up community food kitchens, educational programs and health services. Others, in their promotion of democracy, demand government transparency and help set up and monitor free elections.

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has been working on election reform in Egypt since 2006, six years before the Arab Spring.

"There are brave people both within the society and outside who are trying to make the voice of the people heard through the ballot box," said Bill Sweeney, the foundation's president and CEO. "This action in Egypt might deter people from trying to express themselves and seek greater freedom."