Washington, DC— U.S. Rep. Eliot L. Engel, the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement regarding the conviction by an Egyptian criminal court of 43 foreign NGO workers on charges of illegally using foreign funding to foment civil unrest.

The statement follows:

"This decision is a disgrace. These pro-democracy workers, who were first prosecuted by the military regime that succeeded Mubarak, operated in the light of day and did nothing illegal or unethical. May I remind the Morsi government that these kind of actions are precisely the ones that undermined the previous Egyptian regime."