Egyptian American Aya Hijazi and her husband, Mohamed Hassanein, are co-founders of the Belady Foundation. (Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)An Egyptian court on Saturday acquitted a U.S. charity worker who had spent almost three years in pretrial detention for her work with an organization helping street children. Human rights groups said the charges were fabricated. Human rights groups and activists say the dragnet has extended to dissidents of all political persuasions. During Sissi’s presidency, that pressure has accelerated, and representatives of many of the country’s leading human rights groups have been arrested, subjected to travel bans or had their assets frozen.

Source: Washington Post April 16, 2017 15:19 UTC