EDITION: U.S.
 
CONNECT    

Mounir Marzuq: Egyptian Poet Jailed For Poking Fun At Mubarak

Huffington Post   First Posted: 8/14/09 Updated: 5/25/11

Mubarak

An Egyptian civil servant was sentenced to the maximum sentence of three years in jail Tuesday for a poem he wrote satirizing President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981, the AFP reports. The penalty for insulting a head of state in Egypt is a jail sentence of anywhere between 24 hours and 3 years. According to AFP:

Marzuq was jailed in Maghagha, southern Egypt, in May after a colleague lodged a formal complaint about the poem deemed insulting to Mubarak, in power since 1981.


The case came to light after the penalised poet's brother appealed to the 81-year-old Mubarak for clemency, the independent Al-Masri Al-Youm reported.




Get HuffPost World On Facebook and Twitter!

FOLLOW HUFFPOST WORLD

An Egyptian civil servant was sentenced to the maximum sentence of three years in jail Tuesday for a poem he wrote satirizing President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981, the AFP reports...
An Egyptian civil servant was sentenced to the maximum sentence of three years in jail Tuesday for a poem he wrote satirizing President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981, the AFP reports...