Democracy workers return home from Egypt
CNN’s Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A high-profile standoff is threatening to derail U.S./Egypt relations. Sam LaHood, the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, was among seven American pro-democracy workers who were detained in Egypt until late last week. These are images of six of them on their flight home. Millions of dollars were paid in bail to free them.

Sam LaHood is joining us now for his first television interview.

Nice to see you, sir. Thank you for talking with us. We appreciate it.

Back in December 29th, your offices were raided. By January 21st, when you were headed to the airport, you discovered that you couldn't go. You had a ban on leaving the country. And finally, that travel ban was lifted and you and six other Americans were able to leave the country on Wednesday. Bail, I understand, was roughly $300,000 per person. So start with me, first and foremost, how does it feel to be back in the United States?

SAM LAHOOD, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE’S EGYPT PROGRAM: Well, I'm thrilled on the home and reunited with my family and my wife. I'm excited just to be able to reconnect with people who sent me e-mails and were praying for all of us and looking forward to our release. And my wife is excited that we're going to finally get to have our honeymoon. I was married in September.

(LAUGHER)

And we weren't able to actually have a honeymoon, so I'm looking forward to that. We're also just were very concerned about our Egyptian colleagues who remain on trial in Egypt. And we're hopeful that this can all be resolved for them, as well.

O'BRIEN: We will get to them in a moment, but first, I want to ask you about the circumstances. No one ever really used the word "hostage" when you were banned from leaving the country. But do you think -- were you held hostage? Is that fair to say?

LAHOOD: That's the analogy that our attorney used. I mean, he felt like to some degree it was -- he equated it to a hostage situation. And we were prevented from leaving the country. It was a de facto detention in the sense that we were prevented from being able to leave the country of Egypt.

O'BRIEN: Talk to me about the official charges. Some of them include operating non-governmental organizations without a license, receiving millions of dollars in elicit foreign funding, they said. Also, you were accused of promoting unrest. So tell me a little bit about your -- the institute, the International Republican Institute, and what does it do and what do you think of those charges?

LAHOOD: Sure. I mean, the International Republican Institute, we work in more than 60 countries around the world. We work to advance democracy at large. We do that by working to provide technical assistance to institutions that support democratic transitions and democratic bodies within a country. And so we work with political parties on very technical issues. We work for civil society organizations about how to work on election issues, election- related issues.

The charges, as you mentioned -- I was accused of two things, which was managing an unregistered NGO and bringing money into the country illegally. Those charges are different than some of the allegations that were made against us about trying to sow unrest within Egypt and more serious things that have been alleged by former elements of the Mubarak regime. But the two charges are serious charges. They're the same charges that me and all my colleagues face. It's basically related to not being registered within Egypt as an official NGO.

O'BRIEN: So then, what happens now to yourself and your colleagues, many of them who are still in Egypt? Do you go back to Egypt to face the charges? Because you've paid bail.

LAHOOD: Sure. Sure. We're working with our lawyers to try to figure out what's next for myself and my other American colleagues. But as we said, we're hopeful that this issue is going to be resolved within Egypt and there will be a positive outcome for our Egyptian colleagues as well. The trial is expected to go on for some time. And we're hopeful for a positive resolution or that the case will be dismissed.

O'BRIEN: In the big picture then, what does it mean about post-Mubarak Egypt? What does this say, do you think?

LAHOOD: That's a little bit above my pay grade. From our experience in working in places that are like Egypt, they're going through a transition like this, oftentimes these transitions are uneven and there's bumps in the road. In our case, what we're seeing here is, as I said, former elements of the Mubarak government that are pushing their own agenda that we think is inconsistent with the transition that's going on in Egypt right now, the democratic transition that's going on.

O'BRIEN: We'll watch the case. Obviously, you'll be watching that as well.

Thank you for talking with us this morning.

That's Sam LaHood, who's the director of the International Republican Institute, Egypt Program.

We appreciate your time this morning. Glad to see you back safe.

LAHOOD: Thanks a lot.