Author:
Publication: The Associated Press
Date: January 27, 2001
An Egyptian author was sentenced
Saturday to three years of hard labor for writings that offended Islam,
court officials said.
A state security court handed down
the prison sentence to Salah-Eddine Mohsen. The court also ordered that
all of Mohsen's books and publications be confiscated because of what it
called his fanatic ideas, said the officials, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
A conviction for offending religion
usually carries a sentence of up to five years in prison here.
Mohsen was tried last year in the
same case and received a six-month prison sentence. The prosecution appealed,
saying the sentence was too lenient, and the case was retried this month,
the officials said.
Mohsen is not widely known but has
written several books, including "Trembling of Enlightenment" and "A Night
Talk with Heaven."
Among other things, he was indicted
for writing that the Quran, Islam's holy book, was outdated. But during
the trial he told the court that he was a believer and that he did not
mean to offend Islam or negate its basic tenets in his writings.
