A 2012 claim against workers of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was sent to court Thursday, according to Emad Nabawi, attorney at the library workers syndicate.

Nabawi elaborated in press statements that the incident goes back to October 2011, when hundreds of workers at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, who opposed the policies of the library Ismail Serag Eddin collected over a thousand signatures demanding the his removal.

The claim, filed January 2012, accused six of those workers of defaming Serag Eddin.

"We were surprised to know that the claim was amended from defamation to protesting and hindering work" Nabawi explained adding that "a number of witnesses have become defendants"  as the six originally charged has ballooned to eighteen.

The attorney also mentioned that the claim included a deceased worker, Salafist and former member of Constitution party, Mohammed Yousri Salam, who died  in early 2013.

Bab Sharqi prosecution in Alexandria, sent the two-year-old claim to court today.

The defendants include the head of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina workers syndicate, Ashraf Saqr.

Following the 2011 revolution which ousted former president Hosni Mubarak, dozens of Bibliotheca Alexandrina workers started a sit-in in October 2011, demanding – among many things – the removal of Serag Eddin and his aides.

The workers accused their superiors of corruption and embezzling public funds. The sit-in led the library's administration to close it for several days for "security reasons.”