Egyptian Appeals Court Sentences Novelist Ahmed Naji to Two Years

In a tremendous blow to Egypt’s novelists, publishers and readers, the Bulaq Criminal Court today sentenced experimental novelist Ahmed Naji to two years in prison for “public indecency” for the excerpt of his novel Using Life that appeared last year in the Akhbar al-Adab newspaper:

najiAccording to several news sources (Mada, Al-Bedaiah), Akhbar al-Adab editor-in-chief Tarek al-Taher, who was also charged in this case, was given a LE10,000 fine.

Naji was immediately taken from the courthouse after receiving the maximum sentence, his attorney Mahmoud Othman told reporters.

Othman said the judgment was final.

It was early January that prosecutors challenged Naji’s January 2 acquittal in the case of whether an excerpt from his novel Using Life had harmed public morals. The novel itself was not banned.

Specifically, the original accuser complained that his “heartbeat fluctuated and blood pressure dropped” while reading the chapter, which Ben Koerber translated into English and which has run on ArabLit.


According to Mada Masr:

Journalists Syndicate board member Khaled al-Balshy hailed the verdict as a clear violation of the constitution, which states: “Freedom of thought and opinion is guaranteed. Every individual has the right to express an opinion and to disseminate it verbally, in writing or as an illustration, or by any other means of expression or publication.”

Balshy concluded, “This is literally a prosecution of the writer’s imagination.”

Read the excerpt, in English translation from Ben Koerber, that got Naji sentenced to two years.



  1. It is unfair to sentence a baby,less than 3 and half year to hard labor,and sentence a whole man to 2 years. The defendant lawyers introduced the computerized birth certificate, that proves the defendant is just 3 and half year old, to the military judge who attached it to the case docs . Later the judge sentenced 169 people to hard labor , including that 3 and half years baby.
    Al-Sisi of Egypt, aka the pimp , is a Zionist Jew ( from maternal side) appointed by Israel, America and Europe to achieve 3 aims: 1- to protect Israel 2- to get rid of and eradicate Muslims and Islam. 3- to destroy true democracy , as Egypt for the first time in history elect democratically a president ,People Assembly and Shura Assembly.
    You cover the crimes of Al-Sisi and concentrate on trivial incidents that relate to the people you support ,who are usually anti-Islam.


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