Publisher questioned, released following seminar on imprisoned activist

After security forces raided the premises of publishing house Dar El Maraya and took its director, Yehia Fekry, into custody overnight, Fekry was released on Monday, the publisher said in a statement.

Dar El Maraya publishes a spectrum of titles that it describes as aimed at “a progressive” and “democratic” audience, and has faced security harassment in relation to its publications on previous occasions.

On Sunday, security personnel from the Interior Ministry department that polices the publication, exhibition and performance of artistic works raided the publishing house’s headquarters, spending seven hours examining its licenses and contracts, before taking Fekry to Abdeen Police Station in downtown Cairo, where he was held until Monday morning, when he was released from custody.

The artistic works department leveled three charges at the publishing house, the statement said: releasing books under different titles than those mentioned in contracts; publishing a periodical — El Maraya — without a license from the National Broadcasting Authority; and being in possession of books which are not of its own imprint in PDF form on one of the laptops at the headquarters.

“My release on condition that I provide the police department with my address does not mean the case is closed. I can still be summoned again at any moment,” Fekry told Mada Masr. He added that the prosecution is still in possession of items seized for examination during the raid, which included books and a laptop containing author contracts and book drafts.

After social media commentators speculated as to whether the raid could be related to a seminar Dar El Maraya held on Saturday to discuss You Have Not Yet Been Defeated (Fitzcarraldo, 2022), which compiles the writings of imprisoned activist Alaa Abd El Fattah who has been on hunger strike since early April, Fekry said to Mada Masr that while that could be the case, he was not questioned in relation to the seminar during his time in custody.

The publisher’s Saturday seminar addressed the new Arabic translation of Abd El Fattah’s book, released under the title, The Ghost of Spring. The discussion was led by Laila Soueif, the activist’s mother, journalist Rasha Azab and economic researcher Wael Gamal.