The bestselling author Alaa Al Aswany has said he is being sued by military prosecutors in Egypt for insulting the president, armed forces and judiciary.
Aswany, who lives in the US, said the lawsuit was connected to his last novel – The Republic, As If – and columns he had written for Deutsche Welle Arabic.
He condemned the case as a “clear violation” of Egypt’s constitution.
Aswany’s acclaimed 2002 novel, The Yacoubian Building, has sold more than a million copies in 35 languages.
Through the prism of a historic building in downtown Cairo, it explored corruption and social problems in Egypt under then President Hosni Mubarak.
The Republic, As If – which was published last year but is banned in Egypt – is set during the events of the popular uprising in 2011 that forced Mubarak to resign. It criticises Egypt’s state institutions, parliament, constitution and courts.
In a column for Deutsche Welle on Tuesday, Aswany wrote that he learnt at the weekend that he had been “referred to a military court, accused of having insulted the head of state and incited hatred against the regime, as a result of my most recent novel and what I write for DW”.
“My only crime is being an author, expressing my opinion, and criticising those who deserve it, even if it’s [President Abdul Fattah] al-Sisi,” he added, referring to the former field marshal who led the military’s overthrow of Mubarak’s democratically elected successor in 2013 following mass protests.
The Egypt Today newspaper reported that the lawsuit related in particular to a DW column published on 13 March, which criticised major infrastructure projects ordered by Mr Sisi and the appointment of military officers to civilian posts.
Aswany said the case against him violated Article 65 of the Egyptian constitution, which states that “freedom of thought and opinion is guaranteed”, as well as Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Egypt is a signatory.
