Egypt's prosecution referred a writer and editor to criminal court on Saturday over charges of writing and publishing material that “violates general morals and encourages indecent sexual behaviour".

Last year, the state owned literary journal Akhbar Al-Adab, which is published by Akhbar Al-Youm, ran a chapter from a novel named The Usage of Life, written by journalist Ahmed Nagy.

The prosecution charged Nagy with writing material "to spew sexual lust and transient pleasures, using his pen to express wicked intents, thus violating societal norms of decency and inciting promiscuity.”

The prosecutors charged the journal's editor-in-chief Tarek El-Taher with failing to review published content.

Tarek El-Taher reportedly told investigators that he only read the headline but not the full article.

"El-Taher said that he would not have published it if he read it at all," the prosecution said in a statement on Saturday.

The book The Usage of Life was published recently by Al-Tanweer Publishing House.

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