DOHA — A Qatari appeals court on Monday reduced to 15 years the prison sentence handed to a poet accused of incitement against the regime after a lower court had jailed him for life, his lawyer said.
“My client was sentenced today to 15 years in prison,” Mohammed Nejib Al Naimi said, adding that the case will now be taken to the court of cassation. Mohammed Al Ajami was arrested after the publication of his “Jasmine poem,” which criticised governments across the Gulf region. Naimi said that according to the charges against his client he was liable to a maximum of five years in jail.