UPDATE 16/03/2016: Today I received news from English PEN that Mohammed al-‘Ajami had been released after four years. Which makes what follows a little bit special, knowing that this story at least has a happy ending….
I was honoured recently by a request by English PEN and Amnesty International, on behalf of Farrago Poetry, to read a poem in front of the Qatari Embassay in support of the poet Mohammed al-‘Ajami. Mohammed is currently serving his third year of a fifteen-year prison sentence for ‘challenging the authortiy of the Emir’ by reciting a poem to seven people in Egypt, which was subsequently posted to YouTube. This was part of a series of vigils which are being held as both organisations call for his immediate and unconditional release (the petition for English PEN can be found at https://www.englishpen.org/campaigns/qatar-release-imprisoned-poet-mohammed-al-ajami/). The following work, ‘Poem from a Prison Cell’, is by him.
Tim Kiely: Poetry etc. 