Defence lawyers of jailed journalist and novelist Ahmed Nagy filed a plea Tuesday to suspend the sentence of imprisonment until an appeal against the verdict is reviewed by the court.

The plea stated that the verdict is marred by faulty application of the law.

Bulaq Criminal Court sentenced Nagy Saturday to two years in prison on charges of publishing and writing “obscene sexual content”.

The court also ordered editor of Akhbar Al-Adab Tarek Al-Taher to pay a fine of EGP 10,000 after a chapter of Nagy’s novel ‘The Use of Life’ was published in the literary journal, a subsidiary of state-owned Akhbar Al-Youm. The novel was previously published by Dar El-Tanweer publishing house.

The sentence against Nagy and Al-Taher has been condemned and criticised as unconstitutional by many politicians, writers, media figures, associations, and parties.