UPDATE: After a brief session on Tuesday, Oct. 2 — the trial's shortest so far — the trial was adjourned until Nov. 3, when the judge most likely will listen to closing arguments.
Amid the euphoria of the Tahrir Square revolution last year, the US-Egyptian relationship hit a hard bottom when the Egyptian police raided the Cairo offices of 10 NGOs in December, including four American ones — the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI), Freedom House and the International Center for Journalists. A total of 43 staffers, of which 19 were American citizens, were accused by mismanaging the NGOs by not filing the registration paperwork fully in accordance with Egyptian law, and therefore receiving illegal money from outside the country and spending it illegally on political campaigns.