Only two and a half years after former President Mohamed Morsi was ousted because he was accused of jeopardizing basic civil rights, freedom of expression in Egypt is again being threatened.

Tariq Taher, editor of Akhbar Al-Adab magazine – a cultural weekly first issued by Egyptian Akhbar El Youm Foundation in 1993 – and novelist Ahmed Naji, who is also a journalist at the same magazine, are expected to appear before the court on November 14 for publishing a chapter of one of Naji’s novels in the magazine 15 months ago.

Only two and a half years after former President Mohamed Morsi was ousted because he was accused of jeopardizing basic civil rights, freedom of expression in Egypt is again being threatened.

Tariq Taher, editor of Akhbar Al-Adab magazine – a cultural weekly first issued by Egyptian Akhbar El Youm Foundation in 1993 – and novelist Ahmed Naji, who is also a journalist at the same magazine, are expected to appear before the court on November 14 for publishing a chapter of one of Naji’s novels in the magazine 15 months ago.

Investigations began when reader Hani Tawfiq pressed charges against the author and the editor because when he read the chapter in the magazine his “heartbeat quickened” and he felt “utterly disgusted.” Although Tawfiq’s transient condition was not important, it was viewed as a matter of great significance by the Egyptian prosecution because what was published in the magazine was, according to Tawfiq, an offense against individual and even public decency.

In his complaint, Tawfiq considered the published text ‘The Guide for Using Life’ to be an article, a view adopted by the prosecution although Taher repeatedly asserted that it was a literary story rather than a journalistic work.

In August 2014, the magazine published a chapter from Naji’s novel before it was issued later that year. The text was published along with a note explaining that it was an excerpt taken from a novel to be printed later in a book. The book also contained drawings by Ayman Zarqani. Before his ‘The Guide for Using Life’ in 2014, Nagai published a novel entitled ‘Rogers’ in 2007.

The published text and drawings reflected a literary and artistic vision about life in Cairo. It is about an imaginary association called ‘City’s Architects’ that adopts a clandestine activity for destruction of Cairo’s architecture because it believes that there is no architectural solution to the housing crisis in the miserable city.

Knowing later he would be prosecuted, Naji published a statement in which he said the events of the novel were imaginary and that the ‘City Architects’ was a work of fictition and had nothing to do with what was published at the time by some media outlets about the world leadership council and its relation to climate change.

Erotic article

Six months later on October 31, Naji was surprised when he received calls from some colleagues requesting him to comment on the referral of him and Taher to the criminal court because of an “erotic article.”

“The investigators could not determine whether the published material was an article or a chapter taken from a novel,” says Naji. “They could not distinguish its genre and yet decided to hold me accountable for the actions of the protagonist of a novel of my creation.”

Aswatmasriya.com has recently published parts of the prosecution’s investigation of Taher and a few lines from the indictment which says Naji’s text “has contravened the acceptable norms and ideals and offended public decency” because it presented emotional events and described a sexual meeting.

“The prosecution says the case is only a misdemeanor because it is an offense against public decency and will not be considered by the criminal court,” says Mahmud Othman, Naji’s lawyer

Anti-judiciary battle

Naji believes that while it is a citizens’ right to file a complaint against publishing a chapter in a newspaper, the real conflict is with the Egyptian investigative authorities. “The problem is that the Egyptian judiciary has adopted strict attitudes vis-à-vis freedom of opinion and expression,” says Naji. “Since the charges against Taha Hussein for his ‘Pre-Islamic Poetry’ book were dismissed in 1927, there have been no repeats of such investigations. This authority has stood against freedom of creativity.”

Othman believes that this case occurred in the context of a government policy in force since July 30, 2013, especially with the promulgation of a large number of laws restricting the public sphere and creativity, in particular. “Egyptian dancers Bardis and Shakira have been accused of presenting indecent video clips, so as to apply the Penal Code against creativity,” he says.

Article 178 of the Penal Code punishes persons who make or possess indecent publications, manuscripts, drawings, ads or pictures. Under these charges, Naji may be imprisoned for two years or fined E.P. 5,000-10,000 (US$623-1,246). Under Article 178, Taher may be held accountable for publishing an indecent text.

In 2009, Qasr al-Nile Criminal Court fined illustrator Magdy Shafie the author of pictorial novel ‘Metro’ and its publisher Mohammad Sharqawi E.P. 5,000 each, based on the two aforementioned articles. The indictment against Taher says he may be tried under Article 200 bis(A/2), and he thus may be fined a similar amount should he be found guilty of improper supervision.

Othman argues that resorting to the Penal Code provisions, which are general in nature and do not protect creativity, is circumvention of freedom of creativity protected by the Egyptian Constitution and other supportive laws, especially Law No. 60 of 1996 on press regulation, which prohibits the arrest of journalists for cases related to publication. What the prosecution considers an article, says Othman, is actually Chapter 5 of a creative work by Nagai.

Criminal description of creativity

Reading the indictment reveals that the Egyptian judiciary considers creativity to be a major crime. The indictment itself has been written using the style of cliché-ridden detective stories where it describes Naji as a person who “speaks about mundane lusts and transitory enjoyment. He has invested his mind and pen for an insidious and indecent action that violates good manners and engages in inducement of prostitution in open disregard of decency because he presents scenes that portray a flagrant meeting of the two sexes.”