Cairo: An Egyptian court on Wednesday started the trial of well-known writer Fatima Naoot on charges of insulting Islam, in a case that has raised concerns about freedom of expression in the country.
Several lawyers showed up at the Cairo Misdemeanour Court, arguing that Naoot, a Muslim, did not mean to defame Islam in a controversial tweet.
In October, Naoot, who is a novelist and a poet, posted a tweet, criticising Islam’s annual ritual of sacrificing animals during the major Muslim festival of Eid Al Adha.
In response to a lawsuit filed by an Islamist lawyer, prosecutors charged Naoot with insulting Islam and deriding an Islamic ritual, accusations that Naoot has denied.
After a brief hearing session, the court on Wednesday postponed the trial to February 25.
Some Egyptian rights groups and the Press Syndicate sent lawyers to defend Naoot, who was not present in the hearing.
“My greetings and gratitude to every intellectual inside and outside Egypt advocating the freedom of opinion and expression,” Naoot wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday.
“I am fine and victorious whether I am acquitted or ordered to be imprisoned.”
Since the charges were levelled against Naoot last month, rights advocates have voiced worries about free expression in Egypt more than a year after the army’s removal of Islamist president Mohammed Mursi.
During Mursi’s one year in power, several Egyptian writers and actors were sued for allegedly defaming Islam, the religion of most Egyptians.
“What has happened to Naoot is considered an indication of a significant decline in freedom of expression,” the non-governmental Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said. “It augurs a new wave of branding people as infidels.”
