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Qatar: Poet Jailed for Arab Spring-Inspired Poem Freed

HeadlineMar 17, 2016

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.”

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