{"id":14161,"date":"2016-02-20T11:46:47","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T15:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=14161"},"modified":"2016-02-20T11:46:47","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T15:46:47","slug":"egyptian-appeals-court-sentences-novelist-ahmed-naji-to-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/egyptian-appeals-court-sentences-novelist-ahmed-naji-to-two-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian Appeals Court Sentences Novelist Ahmed Naji to Two\u00a0Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY MLYNXQUALEY<\/a><\/span><\/span> on<\/em> 0<\/a> )<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In a tremendous blow to Egypt\u2019s novelists, publishers and readers, the Bulaq Criminal Court today sentenced experimental novelist Ahmed Naji\u00a0to two years in prison for \u201cpublic indecency\u201d for the excerpt of his novel <\/a><\/em>Using Life<\/a>\u00a0that appeared last year in\u00a0the\u00a0<\/em>Akhbar al-Adab\u00a0newspaper:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"naji\"According to several news sources (Mada<\/a>, Al-Bedaiah<\/a><\/em>),\u00a0Akhbar al-Adab\u00a0<\/em>editor-in-chief\u00a0Tarek al-Taher, who was also charged in this case, was given\u00a0a LE10,000 fine.<\/p>\n

Naji was immediately taken from the courthouse after receiving the maximum sentence, his attorney Mahmoud Othman told reporters.<\/a><\/p>\n

It was early January that prosecutors challenged Naji\u2019s January 2 acquittal in the case of whether an excerpt from his\u00a0novelUsing\u00a0Life\u00a0<\/em>had harmed public morals. The novel itself was not banned.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the original accuser complained that\u00a0his \u201cheartbeat fluctuated and blood pressure dropped\u201d while reading the chapter, which Ben Koerber translated into English and which has run on ArabLit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Naji wrote the experimental novel in collaboration with\u00a0illustrator\u00a0Ayman al-Zorqani, who drew for the book.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0<\/a>Mada Masr<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

Journalists\u00a0Syndicate board member Khaled al-Balshy hailed the verdict as a\u00a0clear violation of the constitution, which states:\u00a0\u201cFreedom 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balshy\u00a0concluded,\u00a0\u201cThis is literally a prosecution of the writer\u2019s imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the excerpt,\u00a0<\/strong>in English translation from Ben Koerber, that got Naji sentenced to two years<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY MLYNXQUALEY on FEBRUARY 20, 2016 \u2022 ( 0 ) In a tremendous blow to Egypt\u2019s novelists, publishers and readers, the Bulaq Criminal Court today sentenced experimental novelist Ahmed Naji\u00a0to two years in prison...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,29],"tags":[1816],"class_list":["post-14161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arab-culture","category-censorship","tag-ahmed-naji"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14162,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14161\/revisions\/14162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}