Cairo (CNN) -- Forty-three people, including 19 Americans, face prosecution in an Egyptian criminal court on charges of illegal foreign funding as part of an ongoing crackdown on nongovernmental organizations, a prosecution spokesman said Sunday. Those referred to court also include five Serbs, two Germans and three Arabs, said Adel Saeed, spokesman for the general prosecutor. The remaining people are Egyptian, he said. The defendants include Sam LaHood, International Republican Institute country director and the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Saeed said. The defendants were named by an investigation committee created by Egypt's justice minister, Egypt's state-run Nile TV reported.
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NEW: The State Department says it is "deeply concerned"
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The defendants include the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
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They are charged with illegal foreign funding, authorities say
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The charges follow raids in late December on the offices of 10 NGOs
Egyptian officials have called it a "legitimate judicial process," the organization said, but "the continued assault on American, @placeholder and Egyptian civil society is not a 'legitimate judicial process.'