# Ngo staff sentenced



## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Breaking News: Cairo's criminal court has sentenced 43 NGO staffers to prison, and ordered the closure of four foreign NGOs operating in Egypt and for their funds to be confiscated.

27 defendants who had left Egypt and were tried in absentia were handed down a five-year jail sentence. Out of the defendants in Egypt, 11 received one-year suspended sentences and five were sentenced to two-years in jail.

The NGOs that have been ordered to shut down are Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute, Konrad Adenaeur Foundation and the International Democratic Institute. 

The trial commenced in 2011, when the police raided several NGOs and arrested dozens of foreigners, which included 19 Americans. Those tried in absentia had been released on bail after their respective governments paid bail.


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

The American guy who decided to stay for the trial was accused -amongst other things- of illegally setting up an NGO...6 years before he first came to Egypt


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