(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Cairo offices of at least five non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were raided on Thursday afternoon by officials from Egypt’s public prosecution office backed up by police and military personnel.
The five NGOs who confirmed that they were raided by the authorities were the Arab Center for Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP); the Budgetary and Human Rights Observatory; and the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Freedom House.
Several human rights lawyers who are following developments in the raids that are underway told Ahram Online that Ahmed Ali, staff-member at the Budgetary and Human Rights Observatory, was arrested during the authorities clampdown on his organisation.
While it remains unclear why the five organisations were raided, local human rights activists fear the move may be part of a wider government crackdown targeting critics of violations committed by the former regime or by Egypt’s ruling military council.
"The government never dared do such a thing in the Mubarak era," said prominent Egyptian human rights activist Negad El-Bourai on Twitter.
The raids follow a spate of recent allegations by the government that several NGOs operating in Egypt, as well as a handful of recently established political parties, had received illicit, unregistered funding from abroad.
"We’re still not sure of anything," said Emad Mubarak of the Cairo-based Freedom of Expression Center. "But the government’s excuse might be that they’re auditing the NGOs’ files following charges that several of them had received illicit foreign funding."
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30 December 2011 - 20:30
News ID: 287537
Arab Center for Independence of Judiciary, National Democratic Institute, Freedom House among 17 NGOs raided by security forces for foreign funding 'violations'; ElBaradei and rights groups denounce move
