Qatar poet jailed for life

TFS. I doubt this is going to leave the public eye. The lawyer seems adamant.

brit, TFS

The Qatari poet has had his sentence reduced to 15 years.

Mohammed al-Ajami had his sentence of "incitement against the regime" and "insulting the Emir" reduced by an appeals court on Monday.

He shouted: "There is no law for this," as he was led away from the court by guards.

"This sentence will not stand," said his brother Hasan. "When you strip away everything, this is just a case about power and pressure."

Ajami can still make a final appeal at Qatar's Supreme Court.

His lawyer, Mohammed Nejib al-Naimi, insists that "there was no evidence Ajami had recited the poem he is being tried for in public," a key claim of the prosecution.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/qatar/9892619/Qatari-poet-has-sentence-reduced.html

"t's not nice to comment about internal matters of a country."

Are you serious? If so, why are such comments "not voice"?

It's not nice to comment about internal matters of a country.

The double standard & PR cover-up is why this guy was sentenced in the manner he has been. If Qatar had to actually suffer the consequences of passing such an extreme sentence when they are criticizing all other arab countries for similar things, this wouldn't have happened.

walks like a dictator, talks like one, acts like one is one

with former AJE journalists:

http://dohanews.co/post/37328149835/huffpost-live-invited-me-to-join-a-segment-last#disqus_thread

strange & fishy

All the seven media scources/links failed in publishing one single photo of the poet...or his lawyer???

URNOSY - you would rather talk about PR than the issue someone being locked up for a thought "crime" ?? How big of you.

Qatar has double standards when it comes to free expression? Of course they do! Just ask aljazeera!

It would be a pr disaster if Qatar didn't use its vast wealth to control what is said about them in the media.

The punishment is over the limit for just a poem and I thought that poets were loved and treated well out here

Qatar, one of the world’s wealthiest nations, home to global broadcaster al-Jazeera and a strong critic of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, sought to cast itself as a broker of diplomacy and a champion of liberty and freedom of expression in the Gulf. In a speech in September, Emir al Thani said, ‘[w]e firmly believe in the importance of the freedom of expression and the right of the individual to express his [views]‘.

Yet a heavily criticised draft law, approved by Qatar’s legislative council in June, seeks to impose fines of up to £170,000 for broadcasting information that would ‘throw relations between the state and the Arab and friendly states into confusion’ or abuse or offend the ruling family.

‘Qatar talks about freedom and establishing a centre for press freedom,’ said Ali al-Hattab, a human rights activist, who is close to al-Ajami and was in Doha as the decision was handed down. ‘But it’s a kind of double standard,’ he told the Bureau, referring to the Doha Centre for Media Freedom that opened in 2008.

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/11/30/life-in-jail-for-poet-who-dared-insult-qatari-leader/

Some of the links provided by Bachus has the offending line but not the whole poem.

The truth being revealed wil bring upon worse problems for the ruling family and/or the nation,than the poet being imprisoned for an offending line in a poem. Somehow it seems a truly drastic move to imprison the man for life when the penalty for even offending the Emir is 5 years imprisionment and the poem hardly qualifies to be a full blown act of treason...something just dosent add up!

Can someone post a link to the poem in English. I'd like to see what the fuss was about

We have been around long enough to know that this too will blow over. There are other priorities for nations / peoples to focus on..

I agree, FathimaH. There may very well be more to the story, However, as it currently stands, it is a bit of global PR disaster. If there is more to the story, it is in the the judiciary's best interest to explain it publicly.

I don't see why posting the international coverage of a public judicial action should be controversial. It's not like the trial was a secret or that the judge issued a gag order.

I purposely did not print the offending poem, just the news stories of respectable papers covering the trial and sentencing. It's the issue that got as much attention in the international press and the climate change conference over the past few days.

Questioning the ruling and hoping for a different sort of justice (such as royal pardon) is not that different than all the other threads that cover the crimes and court hearing in Qatar.

QL rules state not to do anything that would be illegal in Qatar. Providing the news and commenting on it is not illegal.

I do hope his sentence is reduced..it certainly seems very extreme and unjust, unless of course there is more to the story..

Freedom for Libyans! Freedom for Egyptians! Freedom for Syrians! Oppsss, that enough freedom, time to stop.

snickers_boyz is mentioning the reason of her removal is posting the same topic of this thread of Bachus.

tahsinmim, I was participating on the food thread which got Oopssed along with its poster.

I was away for the whole day yesterday and wondering what happened with that.

I was referring to the poetry reading by the accused..

she is my friend moreover my co-worker

snickers_boyz, your friend or you? yourself?

for this post my friend gestapos_qatar got Oooops!!

Is it feedom of expression or incitement to overthrow?

hope his appeal is succesful..

sigh!

qatar is a fragile and insecure as all the other autocractic dictatorships in the middle east

EVEN IF THE DECISION IS OVERTURNED, IT IS A SHAME TO PUT A CLEARLY INNOCENT MAN IN JAIL FOR OVER A YEAR WITHOUT BAIL... OVER A GODDAMN POEM

DEMOCRACY MY ASS