CAIRO, Jan 11 (Aswat Masriya) - Cairo Criminal Court upheld on Wednesday decision to ban three non-governmental organisation directors from dealing with their assets.

The defendants include director of Nazra for Feminist Studies Mozn Hassan, director od Arab Organisation for Criminal Rehabilitation Mohamed Zare'a, and director of the Arab Penal Reform Organisation. They are charged with receiving foreign funds.

The foreign funding case initially started in 2011 and has brought heavy criticism to Egypt with a number of NGOs being raided and investigations launched into their foreign funding.

It later on simply came to be known as the NGO trial, in which 43 Egyptians and foreigners were convicted in 2013.

Egypt reopened the investigation into the case last March, a move which was locally and internationally criticised.

In September 2016, the judicial probe barred four rights defenders and their families from disposing of their assets. The temporary decision includes Gamal Eid and Hossam Bahgat, two leading Egyptian rights defenders.