Bahrain jails woman, 20, for reading poem

Bahrain jails woman, 20, for reading poem
Published: June 12, 2011 at 1:30 PM

MANAMA, Bahrain, June 12 (UPI) — Bahrain sentenced a young female poet to a year in prison Sunday for speaking at a protest rally.

Ayat al-Qormozi, 20, was convicted of reading a poem at a banned demonstration in February at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, CNN reported.

“Freedom of speech in this country has its boundaries and cannot touch on the leadership, and cannot call for the overthrow of the government,” said Sheik Abdul-Aziz bin Mubarak of the Information Ministry.

Al-Qormozi’s poem “caused incitement and hatred to his majesty the king and to the prime minister” with lines such as “We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery,” he said.

Amnesty International condemned the verdict.

Al-Qormozi was arrested March 30 after police threatened to kill her brothers if the family did not surrender her, relatives said. They say she has been tortured.

Meanwhile, authorities Sunday charged two former opposition legislators, Matar Matar and Jawad Fairooz, with “spreading malicious lies in an attempt to overthrow the government,” Mubarak told CNN.

The men, who quit Parliament along with fellow opposition members to protest repression, pleaded not guilty and will be kept in jail until their next hearing.

Thousands attended a protest rally called by their party Saturday. …source