The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
March 17, 2016

Qatar: Poet Jailed for Arab Spring-Inspired Poem Freed
------------------------------------------------------

In Qatar, a prominent poet has been pardoned and released from prison
after serving more than three years for writing and reciting a poem
inspired by the Arab Spring. Rashid al-Ajami was jailed in November 2011
after a video surfaced of him reading a poem entitled "Tunisian
Jasmine," which celebrated Tunisia's popular uprising. He was charged
with insulting Qatar's ruling emir and "inciting to overthrow the ruling
system."
Topics:Qatar Arab Spring

.