At the end of a secret trial, five times postponed, the Qatari poet Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami was sentenced to life imprisonment for "insulting the regime, defaming Crown Prince Tamim and attacking the constitution" (sic).

Though the charge has not been disclosed, it seems that the regime may have zeroed in on al-Ajami’s widely circulated “Jasmine Poem,” which asserted "We are all Tunisia in the face of the repressive elite."

The poet has already been held in solitary confinement for at least five months.

Numerous Arab intellectuals and poets have mobilized to call for al-Ajami’s release.