LEAD: Egypt names 43 NGO workers facing trial

Feb 6, 2012, 17:35 GMT

Cairo - Nineteen US citizens and two Germans are among 43 people that Egypt wants to try over alleged illegal activities by their non-government organizations (NGOs), judicial officials said on Monday.

Only five of the US workers, including Sam LaHood, the son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, are currently in Egypt and face a travel ban. LaHood runs the Egypt office of the Washington-based International Republican Institute.

The two Germans, who also remain in Egypt, work at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Three Serbs, two Lebanese, a Norwegian, a Palestinian and a Jordanian are also to face trial along with 14 Egyptians.

Judges Sameh Abu Zeid and Ashraf al-Ashmawi, who led an investigation into the work of NGOs, said the foreigners face charges of setting up offices in Egypt without licences and funding certain groups during parliamentary election to serve foreign agendas.

The Egyptians are accused of receiving millions of dollars to 'implement a foreign scheme in the country, undermine national security and transfer important reports to foreign bodies.'

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation protested in Berlin at the charges against its bureau chief Andreas Jacobs and a German woman staffer. The federally funded foundation is associated with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Its chairman, Hans-Gert Poettering, who is a former president of the European Parliament, said he met ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy on Monday and told him the charges were 'utterly unacceptable.' Poettering said he would visit Cairo on Tuesday to consult staff.

In December, Egyptian prosecutors and police raided the offices of 17 NGOs throughout the country, detaining employees and seizing computer files.

No date was given for the start of the trials, which will take place at the Cairo Criminal Court.

Judges said other suspects at non-profit groups were still under investigation.

The move is set to anger the United States, which has threatened to withhold 1.3 billion dollars of annual military aid to Egypt over its recent crackdown on NGOs.

Egypt has been receiving the aid since 1979, when it signed a peace treaty with Israel.