Egypt’s government is claiming justification for sweeps by police and soldiers last week through the offices of 10 nonprofit human-rights and pro-democracy groups, saying the foreign organizations were unduly interfering in domestic political affairs, the Associated Press and The New York Times write.

Faiza Aboul Naga, Egypt’s minister for international cooperation, said the raids, in which computers, files, and money were confiscated, were ordered by independent judges and involved groups that had received outside “political funding” to foment protests and instability.

“This was not a raid or a storming or an attack,” Ms. Aboul Naga said. “It was an investigation.”

The sweeps brought denunciations from the United States, Germany, and the United Nations. Two of the U.S.-based groups targeted, the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, denied the government’s allegations Monday, saying they had cooperated for years with Egyptian authorities and had recently been asked by officials to help monitor the country’s parliamentary elections.