Chimamanda Adichie, 120 prominent international writers call on Egyptian president to release journalist

More than 120 prominent international writers and artists have called on Egypt’s president to release author and journalist Ahmed Naji, who is in prison for writing a sexually explicit novel.

Authors Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Philip Roth and Dave Eggers, singer-songwriter Patti Smith, film-maker Woody Allen and composer Stephen Sondheim are among the signatories of a letter sent by free speech organisation PEN America in a bid to pile the pressure on President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi over his crackdown on Egyptian cultural figures and organisations.

The Egyptian author Ahmed Naji was given a two-year prison sentence for “violating public modesty” after publishing a book with references to sex and drugs.

The case was filed by a private citizen who complained that sexually explicit extracts from the writer’s novel The Use of Life, caused him to suffer heart palpitations.

The letter signed by the authors urged Sisi to drop the charges against Naji and amend Article 178 of the Egyptian penal code.

The letter states: “Mr Naji is serving a two-year prison sentence for writing a novel that contains references to sex and drugs, subjects so relevant to contemporary life that they are addressed through creative expression worldwide, and clearly fall within Egypt’s constitutional protections for artistic freedom.”

Sent on May 8 by PEN America, a group that promotes free expression. several well-known artistic and literary figures signed the letter, including Woody Allen, Margaret Atwood, J. M. Coetzee, Jessica Hagedorn, David Henry Hwang and Orhan Pamuk.

The letter comes a week after Egypt’s repression of the arts and media continued with the arrests of two journalists during a reported raid on the Egyptian Press Syndicate.

At least 23 journalists were imprisoned in the country last year.

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