An Egyptian court will start the trial on Feb. 26 of activists from mostly American civil society groups accused of working illegally in Egypt, in a case which has strained US-Egyptian ties. A judicial source told Reuters that the 43 accused, including around 20 Americans, would go on trial next Sunday, charged with working in the country without proper legal registration. The state new agency MENA said the hearing would take place at North Cairo Criminal Court. Investigators swooped down on the offices of civil society groups on Dec. 29, confiscating computers and other equipment and seizing cash and documents. The American defendants have been banned from leaving Egypt and some have taken refuge in the US embassy. Among those accused is Sam LaHood, Egypt director of the International Republican Institute and the son of the US transportation secretary. “The date of the first hearing in the case of foreign funding involving foreign civil society organizations has been set for Feb. 26,” a judicial source told Reuters. The American groups raided were the IRI and the National Democratic Institute, both democracy-building groups loosely affiliated with the US political parties, as well as the human rights group Freedom House, and the International Center for Journalists. Egyptian Minister of Planning Faiza Abul Naga has linked US funding of civil society initiatives to an American plot to undermine Egypt.
