Americans on trial: a convenient distraction for Egypt's rulers?

In a case that has become an international drama, the trial of 16 Americans and 27 other democracy workers opened today in a rowdy courtroom in Egypt.

The workers are charged with operating nongovernmental organizations without a license and receiving foreign funding illegally. US lawmakers call the case a politically motivated crackdown on rights and democracy groups in Egypt and have threatened to cut off US aid to Egypt – about $1.5 billion annually – if it continues.

But to much of the Egyptian public, it is a sensational case of foreign governments using these organizations to destabilize and control Egypt. State media has whipped up such nationalist sentiments, distracting some Egyptians from the slow pace of the regime's democratic reforms and directing anger outward.

"These foreign agents are working to destroy Egypt," says mechanic and taxi driver Abdel Rahman. "They are the cause of all the negative events of the last year – America is using its money to weaken Egypt. If the court does not convict them, we Egyptians will find them and kill them."

Though 16 Americans are charged, only seven are in Egypt and none of them appeared in court today. All seven are banned from leaving Egypt, and some of them have taken refuge in the US embassy.

The 13 Egyptians who showed up to the chaotic hearing were held in a cage during the proceedings, as is customary in Egypt. All denied the charges against them, and were released without bail until the next hearing in April. Also absent from the proceedings were the Germans, Jordanians, Serbs, and Palestinians who are also charged.

Seeking 'espionage' sentences

Lawyers who volunteered against the civil society workers demanded they be sentenced to jail for "espionage," saying they had worked with the CIA, and demanded the accused pay punitive damages for the harm they had supposedly caused Egypt. 

Four of the five organizations involved are American. Two of them, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), are loosely associated with the US political parties and have strong allies in Congress. They ran training for political parties in Egypt and observed elections.

Both IRI and NDI applied for registration with the Egyptian government before the revolution that overthrew former President Hosni Mubarak. The registration was a requirement under a Mubarak-era law intended to restrict the activities of civil society organizations working for human rights and democracy.

The groups' applications were never approved, but neither were they denied, leaving them in legal limbo. But they had worked in Egypt for years, and officials from both organizations say they were in contact with the authorities about their activities, and were transparent. Both groups were certified by a government entity to monitor parliamentary elections.

Though Egypt always opposed direct US funding to these groups because Egyptian officials preferred to control the money themselves, the US drastically increased funding for the groups after a popular revolt overthrew Mubarak, gambling that Egypt's temporary military leaders would welcome assistance in Egypt's transition to democracy.

More hostile than Mubarak

Instead, they were even more hostile than Mubarak. State media launched a smear campaign against the groups last year. A Mubarak-era minister seen by US officials as the driving force behind the prosecutions initiated an investigation of the groups that led to raids on their offices in December, during which security forces confiscated equipment, documents, and cash.

In a press conference this month, the investigating judges laid out evidence in the case that seemed aimed at portraying the accused as foreign spies who threatened Egypt's national security.

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