• 07:58
  • Sunday ,07 February 2010
العربية

Egypt seizes book critical of Libyan regime at book fair

By-Egypt News

Home News

00:02

Sunday ,07 February 2010

Egypt seizes book critical of Libyan regime at book fair
Egyptian security forces have seized a book that apparently criticizes the Libyan regime, and have arrested its publisher, media reports said on Friday.
 
The book, The Leader Is Cutting his Hair, was seized Monday during the Cairo Book Fair during a raid by state security to seize all copies, Daily News Egypt reported.
 
A rights group said the publisher could face criminal charges, DPA reported.
 
The writer, Idris Ali, is a Nubian writer who lived in Libya from 1976-1980, lawyer Ahmed Ezzat, from the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, was quoted as saying.
 
"The book is about the repressive regime in Libya, (Moammar) Gaddafi's dictatorship," Ezzat said.
 

State security seizes publications at the annual Cairo Book Fair, the largest in the Arab world, frequently. Many books, for established local and international writers, were banned before, because of their religious or sexual content.