Writer and journalist Ahmed Naji was sentenced to two years in prison on Saturday for publishing a “sexually flagrant article” in the state-owned cultural newspaper Akhbar Al-Adab last year.

The Abul-Ela Misdemeanor Appeal Court in Cairo also fined Tareq El-Taher, the editor-in-chief, EGP 10,000.

The verdict comes after the prosecution appealed the same court’s order on 2 January to clear the two defendants of all charges.

The two journalists were originally referred to misdemeanor court last year and stood in trial for the first time on 14 November 2015.

The prosecutor accused Naji of publishing a "flagrant erotic article in which the charged writer published a text that spewed sexual lust and transient pleasures, using his mind and pen to violate public decency and good morals, inciting promiscuity."

The initial decision to refer Naji and Taher to the court came after one of the newspaper's readers, known as Hani Saleh Tawfik, filed a legal complaint claiming that the text in question caused him “to experience heart palpitations and an extreme feeling of sickness along with a sharp drop in blood pressure” due to the indecency of the text.

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