In December 1991, an Emergency court convicted Alaa Hamed (or Hamid) for violating Egypt's anti-blasphemy law by publishing The Void in a Man’s Mind. In 1990, Al-Azhar University had complained that the novel had atheist and pagan ideas.[1] The public prosecutor contended that Hamed's novel was "a serious threat to the fundamental beliefs of Egyptian society and, in particular, those connected with the person of God most Almighty and the heavenly religions, . . . representing . . . an incitement to atheism and apostasy."[48] The court sentenced Hamed to eight years imprisonment.[49] The court convicted Hamed's publisher, Mohamed Madbouli, and Hamed's printer, Fathi Fadel, of abetting Hamed's crime but the President or the Prime Minister set aside all the sentences.