Nedim Gursel, novelist and research director of comparative literature at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) had his case put before the court Tuesday. The charge: that his latest novel ‘The Daughters of Allah’ was responsible for “denigration of the religious values of a segment of the population and disturbance of the public.”

In an appearance on FRANCE 24, the Franco-Turkish author declared his “confidence in the Turkish justice system,” but he did not hide his contempt for the charges, which he deems “serious in a country that claims to be secular.”

“A judge threw out the case in August 2008 after a judicial investigation. I thought the matter was over. But a higher court overturned the previous decision and decided that the novel merited another trial,” he said.

The Turkish head of religious affairs, under the auspices of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reopened the case, citing certain passages of ‘The Daughters of Allah’ deemed to be blasphemous.

“This incident has arisen over a literary work, which is beyond their area of expertise,” said Gursel. He wrote in an open letter to the Turkish government: “To justify this accusation, certain passages of my novel were trimmed and rewritten for the purpose of making them sound defamatory.”

The incident has raised the ire of the French intellectual community, of which seventeen have co-signed a letter “to the Turkish government, demanding that they put an immediate end to all prosecution of Nedim Gursel, in the name of freedom of expression, and in the name of enforcing this notion throughout the European Union.”