The cover of the novel “The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel,” by Israeli author Uri Bar-Joseph. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – An Egyptian court has sentenced the head of an Egyptian publishing company to five years in prison for distributing an Arabic version of an Israeli spy novel in 2016, the AFP reported on Tuesday.

The book, “The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel,” by Israeli author Uri Bar-Joseph, portrays Ashraf Marwan—the son-in-law of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser—as a spy for Israel. Marwan, who was also an adviser to former president Anwar Sadat after Nasser’s death, was found dead in 2007 in London.

Khaled Lotfi has been on trial in a military court since 2018, and was accused of having “divulged military secrets,” his brother Mahmoud Lotfi told AFP. “There is no other recourse but a presidential pardon,” he said.