Cairo: An Egyptian court has sentenced an Islamic researcher to five years in prison on charges of contempt of religion on a controversial TV show, legal sources said on Sunday.

The ruling by the Cairo Misdemeanour Court was in response to a lawsuit filed by a lawyer against Muslim TV host Islam Al Behery accusing him of defaming Islam on his now-suspended programme, the sources added.

Al Behery did not appear in court for the ruling, which can be appealed.

The researcher, who criticised early Muslim scholars on his show, vowed to pursue what he described as an “intellectual battle”.

“I was not aware of the exact date of the court session. I am ready to go to court and turn the issue into an intellectual battle,” he said in a phone interview with private Egyptian broadcaster Dream TV. “What I say includes no contempt for religion. It is an attempt to expose persons, who have no sanctity.”

Al Behery, in his mid-thirties, said that around 48 lawsuits have been filed against him for alleged defamation of Islam.

On Saturday, another court adjourned until June 10 a hearing pertaining to one of the lawsuits.

The five-year prison sentence for Al Behery comes a month after Egyptian private TV station Al Qahera Wal Nas took Al Behery’s programme off the air following protests from Al Azhar, the influential institution of Sunni Islam.

Al Azhar has accused Al Behery of sedition and raising doubts about basic tenets of Islam.

Al Azhar has also accused Al Behery of insulting revered heads of the Islamic schools of thought.

In his weekly programme, Al Behery also questioned the credibility of sources of the Prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) sayings, a major reference to Islamic jurisprudence.

Al Behery, casting himself as a reformist, has repeatedly said that his aim is to spread religious enlightenment by providing a modern interpretation of writings by early Muslim scholars without taking their legacy for granted.

Earlier this year, President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi called for a “religious revolution” in the mostly Muslim country to help root our violent militancy.