Egypt MPs to Hold Accountable Anyone who Allowed NGO Foreigners Go

Egypt's parliament is to probe and "hold accountable" anyone who intervened to allow foreign activists on trial to leave the country, the house speaker said on Saturday.

Saad al-Katatni said parliament would summon officials to explain the decision and "hold accountable those responsible for this crime, which represented a blatant intervention in the affairs of Egypt's judiciary."

After months of pressure from Washington, about 15 of the foreign defendants including Americans were allowed to fly out of Cairo airport on Thursday after posting bail, sparking outrage in Egypt.

"We cannot accept any type of foreign intervention in Egypt's affairs," Katatni, an Islamist, told a joint session of parliament and the senate. "This case cannot be ended with a political decision."

The trial, in which the activists were accused of receiving illicit foreign funds to operate unlicensed NGOs, caused a crisis in relations between the United States and its close Middle Eastern ally.

Egyptian authorities had insisted they could not intervene in a judicial matter, but the trial, which opened last Sunday, began to unravel as the judges stepped aside and a travel ban on the defendants was lifted.

The foreigners were rushed through Cairo airport on to a private plane after having each posted bail of two million pounds (around $330,000 or 247,000 euros).

The official al-Ahram newspaper said the judges recused themselves after they were requested to lift the travel ban, outraging Egyptians across the political spectrum at alleged political interference.

A new panel of judges to try the case is expected to be announced on Saturday, but the Cairo appeals court head, Abdel Moez Ibrahim, has suggested a misdemeanor court may take over the proceedings.

The defendants had been charged under the penal code, which could have led to jail sentences of up to five years.