Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Rejects U.S. Pressure Over NGOs
February 16, 2012, 12:07 AM ESTBy Mariam Fam
(Updates with comments from Muslim Brotherhood in fifth paragraph.)
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood urged officials to reject U.S. “pressure” over the case of workers at non-governmental organizations accused of breaching laws on foreign funding.
“Egyptians will not tolerate any officials who decide to succumb to pressure and to cover up the accusations or interfere in the work of the judiciary,” the group, whose party alliance controls the largest bloc in parliament, said today in an e- mailed statement. The Muslim Brotherhood supports the “nationalistic” stance taken by Egyptian officials over the case, it said.
Egypt has referred 43 people, including the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, to trial after a probe into foreign funding of NGOs. The inquiry has added to strains between the U.S. and Egypt and jeopardized American financial aid to the Egyptian military, a close ally.
The Brotherhood said the case showed that part of U.S. aid to Egypt “is being spent to destroy Egypt and ruin its society.”
The state-run Al Ahram newspaper yesterday reported that Egypt’s minister of planning and international cooperation, Fayza Aboulnaga, has told investigators that the U.S. directly funded NGOs in the country to sow chaos after the fall of Hosni Mubarak.
--Editors: Karl Maier, Ben Holland
To contact the reporter on this story: Mariam Fam in Cairo at mfam1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
