Commotion at Egyptian author’s France appearance

PARIS: Supporters of deposed former Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi disrupted a conference in Paris centering on best-selling Egyptian novelist Alaa Al-Aswany, forcing him to flee the hall.
Jack Lang, a Socialist former culture minister who heads the Arab World Institute in Paris, said Friday that it was filing a legal complaint against unspecified culprits for damages after the incident at its gleaming Left Bank building. “A band of apparently pro-Mursi militants infiltrated (the conference) and took seats up front,” said Lang, who was in his office nearby at the time. “I don’t know exactly what was said, but insults were exchanged ... they (protesters) shook the table and one succeeded in breaking a window with I-don’t-know what.” Al-Aswany, author of best-selling “The Yacoubian Building,” gave cautious early backing to Mursi after his election victory, but later supported the Egyptian military’s decision to remove him.