Longstanding distrust of U.S.-based democracy-building groups in Egypt underlies the escalating dispute over Cairo’s criminal probe of such organizations, writes The New York Times.

State-run media said Sunday that 19 workers at the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House, and the International Center for Journalists would be prosecuted for allegedly operating without licenses and backing Egyptian politicians to “serve foreign interests.” Two dozen employees of other foreign-funded nonprofit groups face similar charges.

The U.S. organizations offer training in political organizing, grass-roots activism, and press freedom. They say they do not take a partisan role in Egyptian affairs and have long operated openly in the country.

Suspicion of such organizations predates Egypt’s current military government, which took power when mass protests forced Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last year. Two of the American groups were being investigated by the Mubarak regime for allegedly supporting the former president’s opponents.