Azza Soliman, a prominent Egyptian women’s rights activist, was released on EGP 20,000 bail by a Cairo court hours after her arrest on Wednesday.
Soliman, who is the co-founder and director of the Centre for Egyptian Women Legal Assistance (CEWLA), was arrested from her home in connection to a legal investigation into the illegal foreign funding of NGOs in Egypt.
The activist is accused of receiving foreign funding illegally with the aim of harming Egypt’s national security. She is also accused of illegally engaging in NGO activities and tax evasion, reported state-media Al-Ahram.
In November, Soliman was barred from travelling to Jordan and her assets were frozen. According to Aswat Masriya, the bank freezing her assets cited a decision in relation to a 2011 NGO foreign funding case.
The foreign funding case concerned a number of NGOs accused of receiving illegal foreign funding after Egypt’s January 25 revolution. The case was recently reopened, with investigations into the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Nasra for Feminist Studies, and Arab Network for Human Rights and Information (ANHRI).
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