This article is somewhat old but I found it to be quite interesting. Mohammed al-Ajami wrote a poem back in November of 2012 that insulted the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his son, the crown prince. In the Arab world, poets are supposed to praise those in power and not talk down about them. Mohammed al-Ajami was sentenced to life in prison for this poem he wrote. It seems very odd for a country to be able to sentence to someone life in prison for a poem he wrote.
Here is a link to the full article
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20550160
As of yesterday, Mohammed al-Ajami had his sentenced reduced to only 15 years in prison instead of life. Human rights activist have condemned his conviction by saying that his trial was done with secret court trials that he did not know about. I found these two articles to be quite interesting because I had no clue it was possible to sentence someone to years in prison for writing a poem.
Article from yesterday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21572072
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