CAIRO -

In early March 2012, a year and two months after a revolution that toppled the president of the largest Arab country, and the military council took over the administration of the country's affairs, an American plane lands on the grounds of Cairo Airport and its engines keep spinning. , leaving behind a dust of ambiguous questions, and rage burning in the skies of Egypt.

This famous incident, in which foreign human rights defenders left Egypt, came among several exciting incidents in the civil society case No. 173 of 2011 known as the case of foreign funding of human rights organizations, the investigation sessions of which resumed this week.

Two of the most famous Egyptian jurists, Gamal Eid and Negad Al-Borai, appeared before the investigative judge, knowing that they are banned from traveling among a number of other jurists accused in the same case, and the money of some of them was seized by judicial decisions.

Eid - who heads the Arab Network for Human Rights Information - told Al Jazeera Net that he was "not optimistic" about opening an investigation recently into this issue that has been circulating for 10 years, expressing concern that "the time has come to try to take revenge on independent institutions."

Eid denied his knowledge that the aim of the investigation into the case recently was to lift the penalties against him, expressing his belief through the "volume of fabrications" that the ultimate goal is "revenge" against independent human rights institutions.

A statement by the Arab Network for Human Rights Information said that Counselor Ali Mukhtar, the new investigative judge delegated to the case, held the first investigation sessions with the network's director, lawyer Gamal Eid, about 10 years after opening this "fabricated" political case, as the statement put it.

Proceedings of the meeting

The investigation session - which lasted about 3 hours - was limited to reviewing the case file and the facts attributed to the network or its director.

The case file included photographs of legal and research reports issued by the Arabic Network, such as a report on prolonged pretrial detention and its dangers, and reports on imprisoned journalists and prisoners of conscience in Egypt.

The file included a report from the National Security stating that these human rights reports aim to destroy the state and stir public opinion, and that the Arab Network received funding from Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, claiming that they are funding organizations that are hostile to the Egyptian regime.

The network’s statement said that the file also included “conflicting” memos and reports about the establishment of the network and its payment of taxes, and according to the national security investigations about the organization and its director, Gamal Eid, that they played a major role in the “January events and attempts to demolish the state,” according to the security description, and the statement confirmed that the Arabic network And its director affirms their pride in participating in the January revolution, in an attempt to "save Egypt from corruption and tyranny."

Documents disappeared

As for the "shocking" surprise - according to the statement - it was represented in the disappearance of important documents from the case file that had been previously submitted in the case, responding to the investigations of the National Security Officer, by receiving Gamal Eid grants on his personal account.

The disappeared documents are documents from the Commercial International Bank that prove that the transfers Gamal Eid received on his personal account are transfers from his account in New York to his account in Egypt.

Eid stressed that "whoever spends his own money on public libraries does not destroy the state, but rather tries to build society and the state," stressing that "tyranny" and "the absence of the rule of law" are what destroy states and societies.

Eid expressed his hope that the performance of Counselor Ali Mokhtar, the current investigative judge in the case, will be different from that of his predecessor.

On the other hand, the human rights defender Nejad Al-Borai described the atmosphere of the investigation as very friendly, and the investigations proceeded satisfactorily.

In a post on his personal page, Al-Borai said, "Whatever the outcome of this case, I find myself proud of the work and activities I have done with my dear colleagues."

Al-Borai pointed to his contribution, among other human rights defenders accused in the case, to "rescuing" some victims of violations, and made a great effort to promote a culture of human rights as much as possible, and to provide many advice and plans to successive governments since 1986.

Al-Borai revealed that he expected the “enjoyable” troubles he had faced since his human rights work in the country, because he works in Egypt, which is one of the third world countries, not in Switzerland or Finland, as he put it, leaving a legacy of values, not money, of which his children are proud.

A session was set for Sunday, August 1, to complete the investigation.

case stations

The issue of foreign funding began with the formation of a fact-finding committee in July 2011 on foreign funding for local organizations and unlicensed foreign organizations in Egypt. Two months later, the committee submitted its report to be investigated by two advisors at the Cairo Court of Appeal, who were assigned by the then Minister of Justice.

The two advisers decided to refer 43 human rights defenders to criminal trial in February 2012 - including 29 non-Egyptians - on charges of receiving foreign funding in violation of the law and using it in prohibited activities, and the Court of Appeal set a session for the 26th of the same month to start the trial.

Two days after the start of the trial, the court, headed by Counselor Mohamed Shoukry, withdrew from considering the case due to its embarrassment. The next day, the travel ban on foreign defendants was canceled after paying two million pounds (about 320,000 dollars at the dollar price at the time, while the dollar is currently about 16 pounds) each.

The release of the foreign defendants and the retention of the Egyptians - in custody - sparked public opinion at the time. Despite the protest, 9 Americans and 8 other nationalities of the accused in the case left Egyptian territory on a private American plane in March of the same year.

While the July 2013 coup was being finalized, the Cairo Criminal Court ruled in June 2013 to punish 27 defendants in absentia with 5 years in prison, 5 others in attendance with two years in prison, 11 others with a one-year suspended sentence, a fine of 1,000 pounds for each defendant, and the closure of all headquarters And the branches of the American Republican and Democratic Institutes, Freedom House, and German Konrad Adenauer at the level of the republic’s governorates, and the confiscation of their money and papers seized.

Three years after these rulings, it was decided to open the investigation again in March 2016, to prevent human rights defender Gamal Eid and 6 other human rights defenders from traveling and to seize their money and the money of their family members as “precautionary measures” until they are investigated, without any charges being brought against them.

Subsequently, the Cairo Criminal Court upheld the decision to prevent human rights activists from disposing of their money, as it is related to Case 173 of 2011, while it rejected the request to seize the money of their wives and children.

Months later, the investigative judge decided to exclude 20 organizations from the case on December 5, 2020, due to the absence of crime and insufficient evidence, including the Mohamed Alaa Mubarak Charitable Foundation.