Al Ajami in court. Image: Dohanews.
A while ago we on the Gulf Art Guide reported on general outcry following Qatari poet Mohammed Rashid Al Ajami receiving a life sentence for a poem praising the Tunisian revolution. Although the Qatari government supports the Syrian revolution, according to some even in a questionable way, the poem was not received well, and the poet was convicted to lifelong imprisonment; at the one hand proving the power of the word, but by any other standard an absurd harsh sentence, in any nation, but certainly in Qatar that likes to present itself as an art and cultural loving, enlightened nation.
From the Dohanews website three month ago.
‘After visiting al-Ajami at the Qatar Central Prison, his lawyer said:
“He’s not defeated by this wrong miscarriage of justice by the court. He said ‘I’m not feeling down at all, I’m OK.’
This sentence has made Mohammad an international figure… he’s going to be the Gulf’s Mandela. He’s a poet, he can publish a lot of things about living on the inside.”
Al Ajami, who uses the name Ibn Al Dheeb for his poetry, was arrested in November 2011 after his “Jasmine Poem” was shared on YouTube. He recited the poem at private gathering in Cairo and says it was recorded and published without his knowledge or consent.
In the poem, about Tunisia’s revolution, he criticizes Arab rulers, saying “we are all Tunisia in the face of the repressive elite.” Al-Ajami was eventually charged with “insulting the Emir” and “inciting the overthrow of the ruling regime.”
His lawyer Al Nuaimi, who once served as Qatar’s justice minister, said an application for appeal will be filed tomorrow outlining numerous irregularities in Al Ajami’s case, including:
- Not charging Al Ajami within the first six months of his arrest;
- Moving Al Ajami from detention to the Central Prison after eight days without possibility of bail, and keeping him in extended solitary confinement;
- Appointing the investigating judge to oversee court hearings, despite clear animosity between the judge and the defendant and against Qatar’s judicial laws;
- Holding court hearings in secret, without Al- Nuami and Al Ajami being permitted to attend, and disallowing a verbal defense; and
- Tampering with court transcripts to make it appear that Ibn Al Dheeb admitted to reciting his poem in public.
Lex Paulson, an international observer involved in Al Ajami’s case who was present at the courthouse on Thursday, told Doha News that Qatar’s prosecutor denied most of the irregularities when confronted with them.
He added that during the trial, two poetry experts from the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage offered identical testimony, confirming that in their interpretation, Al-Ajami’s poems called for the overthrow of the regime.’
Qatari poet’s sentence reduced to 15 years |
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Doha, Qatar – A Qatari poet jailed for life for encouraging the overthrow of the government has had his sentence reduced to 15 years by an appeals court.Muhammad Rashid al-Ajami – a Qatari citizen who goes by the name ibn al-Dheeb in his poetry – was sentenced to life in prison last year.But Qatar’s Court of Appeal reduced the sentence following a brief session on Monday.Ajami’s lawyer, Dr Najeeb al-Nuaimi, said the five judges on the court were unanimous in their decision. Nuaimi plans on filing an appeal to Qatar’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, in three weeks.Ajami was visibly disappointed by the ruling and looked agitated while being led out of the packed courtroom.Qatar’s attorney general, Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Marri, also said he was “not happy” with the judgment. “As a chief prosecutor, I look forward to restoring the sentence to a life term,” he told Al Jazeera.Nuaimi, however, voiced optimism that his client will be spared a long jail term. “We know at the end of the day he will be pardoned,” he told reporters gathered outside the court. “Everybody knows. They told us. Even if he’s sentenced for life, 15 years, whatever … [he is likely to be released] in a couple of months.”Poetry duel
In August 2010, Ajami reportedly recited a poem critical of Qatar’s leadership in front of several friends in Cairo, where he was studying Arabic literature at the time. A recording of the recitation was later uploaded to YouTube. The poem seems to have been part of a back-and-forth poetry battle between Ajami and another poet. “What we believe to be the case from the information available,” Nicholas McGeehan of Human Rights Watch told Al Jazeera, “is that … in the course of those [duels], ibn al-Dheeb appears to have disparaged the emir [of Qatar] to some extent”. The 37-year-old poet, a father of four, also wrote a controversial poem about the 2010-11 uprising in Tunisia, which some activists believe contributed to his arrest. “We are all Tunisia in the face of repressive elites,” the poem read. Steve Caton, a professor of contemporary Arab studies at Harvard University, said political poetry is taken far more seriously in the Arab world than in the West. Nevertheless, he said, it is “very rare” for a poet to be jailed for his verses. Ajami was arrested in November 2011 and held in solitary confinement for several months, according to his lawyer – a claim Attorney General Marri denies. In November 2012, Qatar’s Court of First Instance sentenced the poet to life in prison. Calling for the overthrow of the government is codified under Article 136 of Qatar’s penal code, which mandates a life sentence for those who “instigat[e] by public means to overthrow the regime of the country”. ‘Solid case’ “The case is well-founded in law; it is a totally solid case. There is an offence culpable under the law, the perpetrator confessed of the offense,” said Attorney General Marri. Nuaimi, however, argued that because the poem Ajami read in Cairo was not recited in public, he should not be charged with encouraging the overthrow of the government. He also said Ajami was not permitted to attend court during his earlier sentencing. Nuaimi, a former Qatari justice minister, also worked for Saddam Hussein’s defence team when the ousted Iraqi leader was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006 for crimes against humanity. Ajami’s life sentence was heavily criticised by rights groups. “It is deplorable that Qatar, which likes to paint itself internationally as a country that promotes freedom of expression, is indulging in what appears to be such a flagrant abuse of that right,” said Amnesty International. “We have called for his unconditional release as he appears to be a prisoner of conscience – and to overturn the conviction,” Amnesty International researcher Dina el-Mamoun told Al Jazeera. |