Jailed Egyptian novelist Ahmed Naji's appeal delayed

The author was given a two-year prison sentence in February for ‘violating public modesty’ amid crackdown on free expression by President Fatah al-Sisi

An appeal hearing against a two-year prison sentence imposed on novelist Ahmed Naji for publishing a “sexually explicit” article in an Egyptian newspaper has been delayed.

The writer was jailed in February for “violating public modesty”. He was convicted after the state-owned Akhbar al-Adab published extracts from his 2014 novel The Use of Life. The prosecution followed a reader’s complaint that the extract had caused him to “experience heart palpitations and an extreme feeling of sickness along with a sharp drop in blood pressure”. The newspaper editor was fined the equivalent of £430 for running the extract.

Related: Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji’s crime isn't what he wrote – it is that he is alive

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