CAIRO Egypt AP An Egyptian human rights activist was ordered jailed Tuesday for 15 days pending a probe into allegations that he took money from Britain in return for writing a report about police brutality. Police are investigating Hafez Abu Saada the secretary general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights for ``accepting donations without prior government consent'' an EOHR spokesman said. The police also are working on the premise that Saada published ``false reports that harm national interests and accepted money transfers from foreign countries aimed at acts that harm national and security interests'' said the spokesman Yasser Abdul-Razzak. The charges are punishable by up to 15 years in jail. Prosecutor-general Raga el-Araby who used his constitutional authority to order Saada's detention will put him on trial if the police find enough evidence within the next 15 days. The EOHR admits accepting in October a dlrs 25000 donation by the British Parliament's human rights committee. But it denies the money influenced its report on the arrest and alleged torture of scores of Coptic Christians in the southern village of el-Kusheh in August. On Tuesday the EOHR's 15-member board decided to return the money to Britain and to reject in future all foreign donations as a demonstration of its neutrality. The donation became controversial after it was reported on Nov. 23 by an Egyptian weekly Al-Osboa which called it a payment for committing treason. Two days later the prosecutor-general took up the case. EOHR's report on el-Kusheh says police while investigating a murder of two Coptic Christians in the village rounded up hundreds of Copts and beat them in a bid to extract false confessions. The report said police feared the culprits were Muslim and were anxious to pin the blame on Christians to prevent religious strife in the Christian majority town. During interviews with The Associated Press many villagers confirmed they were tortured. The government has denied widespread torture and says only 14 people were detained. The Interior Ministry says foreign-funded rights groups are maligning Egypt. Al-Osboa whose editor is believed to have close links with the Interior Ministry called the EOHR report a ``flagrant conspiracy on Egyptian national security.'' UR; my/vj APW19981201.0185.txt.body.html APW19981201.0699.txt.body.html