Egypt’s Criminal Court deferred Monday hearing the retrial of 16 accused, including two Americans and a German national, in the case of "foreign funding" of some human rights organizations in violation of the Egyptian law. The court decided to postpone the trial until November 11. The Court of Cassation ruled in April the annul the imprisonment sentences against the accused, ranging from one year to two years, and it decided to put them on trial again before another criminal court. The Egyptian investigation authorities accused 43 defendants in the case that was opened in 2012, including 14 Egyptians and 29 from other nationalities, of receiving foreign aid worth $60 million through 68 NGOs and civil society organizations, which have been operating in Egypt without a license. Some foreign suspects in the case managed to escape after a controversial decision by the Cairo appeals court to release them and allow them to travel abroad. In June 2013, 43 foreign and Egyptian NGO workers were sentenced to prison terms ranging between one and five years and a series of international NGOs were shut down, including Freedom House and the International Center for Journalists, in relation to “Case 173 Foreign Funding”. Cairo has been facing criticism from international organizations and Western governments about the work of human rights organizations inside Egypt, especially after President Abdel Fattah el Sisi issued a decree in May 2017 regulating the work of associations in his country. A spokeswoman for the US State Department said in August 2017 that the NGO law was among the "reasons to stop paying $100 million and freezing another $195 million in aid to Cairo”.