American cleared by Egyptian court
Charges dropped in child-abuse case
CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Sunday cleared Aya Hijazi, a dual U.S.-Egyptian citizen who has been held in detention for nearly three years, of charges over accusations related to a nongovernmental organization she founded to aid street children.
A courtroom in Cairo broke into cheers after the judge dropped all charges against Hijazi, her Egyptian husband and the six other defendants in what human-rights groups called a weak case driven by defective evidence.
Authorities arrested the eight people in May 2014 as part of a widened clampdown on civil society after the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia — a Democrat whose district includes the city of Falls Church, where Hijazi grew up — voiced his joy and relief at Hijazi’s release.
“This wonderful news was a long time coming,” he said in a statement.
Beyer was among several members of Congress who had called on Egypt to release Hijazi.
Hillary Clinton reiterated the demand in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in September, when she was the Democratic presidential nominee.
President Donald Trump did not publicly mention the case when he welcomed el-Sissi to the White House earlier this month, but a senior White House official had said ahead of the meeting that the case would be addressed.
The court’s decision to clear Hijazi surprised her mother, Naglaa Hosny, who said that “we were expecting the worst and hoping for the best.”
“I told Aya that she graduated from their trial with honor,” Hosny said after embracing her daughter outside the court building.
Hijazi’s Egyptian lawyer, Taher Abol Nasr, said Hijazi would likely remain in detention another two or three days while her release is processed.
He expects all the defendants to walk free by the end of the week.
It was not immediately clear whether Hijazi would remain in Egypt.
Hijazi, 30, received a degree in conflict resolution from George Mason University in 2009, then returned to her native Egypt. Along with her husband, Hijazi established a foundation by the name Belady, Arabic for “our nation,” in 2013 with the aim of providing shelter for street children.
A few months later, authorities raided the foundation’s office after a man alleged that his son was missing and blamed it on Belady.
Government prosecutors accused the couple of human trafficking and sexually abusing children in their care, charges that carried sentences ranging from five years’ hard labor to life in prison.
Hijazi, her husband and the other defendants had been held long beyond Egypt’s two-year limit for pretrial detention, in what Human Rights Watch called a “bizarre case.”
Egyptian rights groups said the evidence against the couple lacked credibility.
While some children at the charity did show signs of sexual trauma, a forensic report concluded the abuse had occurred before 2014.
Egyptian authorities have clamped down on civil society, particularly human-rights groups and other organizations that receive foreign funding.
Such groups played a central role in the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and pro-government media often present them as part of a conspiracy to undermine the state.
Authorities also arrested thousands of people in the months after the 2013 overthrow of Morsi, mainly his Islamist supporters but also a number of secular and liberal activists.