New24, 2/5/10

Cairo - Egyptian security forces have seized a book that apparently criticises the Libyan regime, and have arrested its publisher, media reports said on Friday.

The book, The Leader Is Cutting his Hair, was seized on Monday during the Cairo Book Fair during a raid by state security to seize all copies, Daily News Egypt reported.

A rights group said the publisher could face criminal charges.

The writer, Idris Ali, is a Nubian writer who lived in Libya from 1976-1980, lawyer Ahmed Ezzat, from the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, was quoted as saying.

"The book is about the repressive regime in Libya, (Muammar) Gaddafi's dictatorship," Ezzat said.

State security seizes publications at the annual Cairo Book Fair, the largest in the Arab world, frequently. Many books, for established local and international writers, were banned before, because of their religious or sexual content.