Qatar cuts poet’s life sentence to 15 years for “inciting revolt”
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/qatar-cuts-poets-life-sentence-15-years-inciting-revolt
A Qatari poet jailed for life for criticizing the emir and attempting to incite revolt had his sentence cut to 15 years on Monday, in a case human rights groups said showed hypocrisy by the Gulf state, which has supported uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East.
In his verses, Mohammed Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami praised the revolts that toppled several authoritarian leaders across the Arab world, often with the help of money and other support from Qatar, a close US ally which also backs rebels in Syria.
But the poet also criticized Qatar’s absolute monarch and spoke, for example, of “sheikhs playing on their PlayStations.”
He was sentenced to life in prison in November, but he appealed against the conviction and sentence, arguing he should be freed as there was no evidence that he had recited the offending verses in public and so no basis for charging him with incitement.