STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The International Republican Institute said it is "dismayed and disappointed"
- Computers and documents were confiscated, the prosecutor's office said
- The National Democratic Institute said its offices were raided in three cities
- The Arab judicial group was "shocked" by the raid
Cairo (CNN) -- Several rights groups, including three U.S.-based entities, were raided in Cairo and other locations on Thursday in what one source called a push by police to "show some muscle."
Police conducted 17 raids of nongovernmental organizations, targeting at least 10 groups across the country, the General Prosecutor's Office said. The targeted groups included U.S.-based Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI).
The actions were part of an investigation into allegations that groups may have received illegal foreign funding and operating without licenses from the Foreign Ministry and local ministries, according to Adel Saeed, spokesman for the General Prosecutor's Office.
"The raids today represent an escalation of repression unheard of even during the Mubarak regime," said David J. Kramer, president of Freedom House, referring to longtime President Hosni Mubarak, who was pressured to step down in February during the Egyptian uprising.
"These actions come in the context of an intensive campaign by the Egyptian Government to dismantle civil society through a politically motivated legal campaign aimed at preventing 'illegal foreign funding' of civil society operations in Egypt," Kramer said in a statement. "It is the clearest indication yet that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the military chiefs now ruling Egypt, has no intention of permitting the establishment of genuine democracy and is attempting to scapegoat civil society for its own abysmal failure to manage Egypt's transition effectively."
Saeed, the prosecutor's office spokesman, said that some of the NGO offices were shut down "and some computers and documents have been confiscated. A report will be prepared and sent to the judicial authorities for further investigations."
He said police secured premises while prosecutors conducted the searches and seizures.
"This action is inconsistent with the bilateral cooperation we have had for many years," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in her daily briefing with reporters. "We call on the Egyptian government to immediately end the harassment of NGOs, NGO staff, return all property and resolve this issue immediately."
Nuland said diplomats are giving the matter "immediate attention." U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson has been in touch with the Egyptian prime minister in Cairo to discuss the matter. Jeffery Feltman, assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs, had spoken with the Egyptian ambassador in Washington as well, Nuland said.
Two of the U.S.-based groups, NDI and IRI, promote democratic institutions across the globe and had delegations observing Egypt's parliamentary elections.
Julie Hughes, NDI country director for Egypt, said security forces "simultaneously raided" offices in Cairo, Alexandria, and Assiut. She called the raids "surprising." The group has worked in Egypt since 2005.
"They took laptops, papers, electronic devices, financial records, video equipment we used to do video training for participants -- things we use for media training," Hughes said. "We don't really know what this is about. There was no warrant presented, no explanation given, and no names of the individuals who were seizing the property."
A person associated with NDI told CNN that Egyptian police who raided the Cairo offices "took everything, every shred of paper, computers, personal laptops." The source was not authorized to speak on the record and so spoke to CNN on background.
The police raid targeted an officially accredited election observation team, the source said, and appeared to be an attempt by the Egyptian police to "show some muscle" -- to allege that NDI is supposedly funded by a foreign government.
However, according to its mission statement, NDI is a "nonprofit, nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization that has supported democratic institutions and practices in every region of the world for more than two decades."
NDI said it is funded by more than 160 organizations, including the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. State Department.
IRI said it "is dismayed and disappointed" by the raids.
"IRI has been working with Egyptians since 2005; it is ironic that even during the Mubarak era, IRI was not subjected to such aggressive action," the group said in a statement.
The organization has worked with Egyptian political parties "to share technical skills and provide information about democratic participation," but it "does not provide monetary or material support to political parties or civil society groups in Egypt."
"Today's raid is confusing given that IRI was officially invited by the Government of Egypt to witness the people's assembly elections, and was in the process of deploying a high level international delegation to observe the third phase of elections on January 3 and 4, having successfully deployed witnesses for phases one and two," it said.
Islamist parties, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the Al Noor Salafi Movement, have prevailed in the elections so far.
Freedom House said at least two Egypt-based organizations, the Arab Center for Independence of Justice and Legal Professions and the Budgetary and Human Rights Observatory, also were raided. Freedom House urged the Obama administration to "scrutinize the $1.3 billion that the United States annually provides the Egyptian military to fund arms purchases and training."
"In the current fiscal environment, the United States must not subsidize authoritarianism in Egypt while the Egyptian government is preventing NGOs from implementing democracy and human rights projects subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer," said Charles Dunne, director of Middle East and North Africa programs.
Naser Amin, manager and founder of the Arab judicial center, said security forces stormed the group's offices and searched for computers and documents. He said they seized "a lot of material." People in the office described the raid as a "shock," he said.
"They showed us a judicial order for a search operation and closure of the center without even accusing us officially," he said. "I don't understand how they decided we were getting foreign funding without questioning any of us."
CNN's Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Mohammed Jamjoom in Cairo, Jill Dougherty and Pam Benson in Washington, and Joe Sterling in Atlanta contributed to this report.
