Egypt: Court releases convicted employees of Adenauer Foundation

Abusive financing from abroad and troublemaking: This was the allegation when 43 NGO employees were sentenced in Egypt more than five years ago, many of them in absentia. Now a court has acquitted at least 40 convicts. The news agency dpa speaks of 40, the news agency AFP of 43 people.

Among the acquitted are two representatives of the CDU-affiliated Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS). This was confirmed by the Foundation of the AFP news agency. This was an "unjust verdict" from the world, it said from the CDU-related foundation in Berlin.

In June 2013, the 43 defendants were sentenced to prison terms of between one and five years. Egypt's highest appeals court ordered a retrial in April.

Previously, 16 of the NGO representatives had appealed against their conviction. Among the defendants were US citizens, Europeans, Egyptians and citizens of other Arab states. The former office manager of the KAS in Cairo and another employee were also absent from their conviction. The two were sentenced to five and two years respectively. Like most defendants, they were able to leave Egypt in 2012. Both were not imprisoned at any time, the foundation said.

Reopening of work in Egypt "no automatism"

At that time, the court ordered the permanent closure of KAS and other non-governmental organizations in Egypt. The Foundation said it was "not automatic" to resume work in Egypt after the verdict. The situation will be evaluated, they said.

The verdict had led to violent international criticism of Egypt. The Federal Government had repeatedly demanded the termination of the procedure and the restoration of the working ability of the Adenauer Foundation. The Foreign Ministry ordered the Chargé d'Affaires of the Egyptian Embassy.

The one-year legal process was based on a ruling by the Egyptian judiciary that in December 2011 raided offices of 17 organizations in Cairo, including the Adenauer Foundation. The raids confiscated papers and computers. The 43 defendants were accused of establishing unauthorized branches and financing them from abroad.

Since the military coup against Islamist President Mohammed Mursi in 2013, Egypt has been increasingly targeting non-governmental organizations. Mursi's fall was led by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has been Egypt's president since 2014. Human rights groups accuse his government of human rights crimes and the suppression of oppositionists.