Qatari poet jailed for life to hear appeal verdict this month
A Qatari poet jailed for life for an internet poem is likely to hear later this month whether his appeal against his sentence is successful, his lawyer has said. Muhammad ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami had been in prison since November 2011, months after the video was posted of him reciting Tunisian Jasmine - a poem praising that country's popular uprising, which sparked the Arab spring rebellions across the Middle East. In the poem, he said: "We are all Tunisia in the face of repressive" authorities, and criticised Arab governments that restrict freedoms.
Ajami’s lawyer, Najeeb al-Nauimi, argues his client had no intention of challenging Qatar's emir. According to the New York Times, during a hearing on Sunday, Ajami met directly with the presiding magistrate. A verdict is expected on 25 February. There is a petition for those who want to put pressure on Qatar to free Ajami, backed by the campaigning group 100,000 Poets for Change.
M.C. Newberry
Sun 3rd Feb 2013 17:38
How secure can the Emir of Qatar feel if his regime sees fit to punish a poet so harshly for expressing a view? - the function of poets down the ages. There is reason to suspect that the speed of change in the Arab world, shown and perhaps promoted by modern communications like the internet, is causing a whiplash reaction from those who feel threatened by the wider realities of change in that world. Is a poet to be less feared in such an environment? As the question has it: How do you kill an idea?
Let us hope the Qatari judicial system acts to reduce the grotesque sentence and replace it with something more appropriate to a world that will otherwise leave it far behind.