NGO's 'political motive'

Judges in Egypt investigating non-government organizations accused of receiving illegal foreign funding said the groups were illegally involved in Egyptian politics.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Judge Sameh Abu Zeid said the NGOs were operating "without license" and their activity constituted "pure political activity and [had] nothing to do with civil society work."

In December, raids were conducted on the offices of 17 local and foreign NGOs to investigate how they were funded. Abu Zeid said on Wednesday that the raids were conducted "according to the law."

In investigating the illegal funding charges, Egyptian authorities apparently learned that the NGOs changed tact after the January 25 revolution of last year that knocked President Hosni Mubarak from power.

"The activities became political, related to training political parties or mobilizing people," Abu Zeid said.

Among the groups implicated in the investigation are Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation and a number of US organizations. Nineteen American workers face criminal charges.

The Pentagon said Wednesday that the US chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, would visit Egypt this week for security talks with his Egyptian counterpart. A spokesman for Dempsey said he wasn't being dispatched specifically because of the NGO investigation but that if the issue was not resolved by then, it would be brought up in talks.

mz/ccp (AFP, AP)