Qatari poet pardoned after five years in jail

Mohammed al-Ajami, also known as Mohammed Ibn al-Dheeb, has walked free from jail after receiving a pardon from the emir of Qatar.

The poet was jailed in 2011 over a verse that a Doha court found insulted the previous emir and urged the overthrow of the country's ruling dynasty.

He was initially handed a life sentence, which was commuted to 15 years on appeal in 2013.

"It didn't take minutes for him to be back with his family and children," his brother told AFP. "Tolerance and forgiveness is an authentic trait of the people and rulers of Qatar."

In the poem Tunisian Jasmine, the father of four showed a sense of solidarity with the countries taking part in the Arab Spring uprisings.

"We are all Tunisian in the face of the repressive elite," he wrote. Saying further that all Arab governments were "indiscriminate thieves" was enough to land Ajami in jail.

He had recited the poem to a group of friends in his apartment in Cairo, Egypt, where he was studying Arabic literature. But one of the group recorded him speaking without his realising and uploaded the video online, where it was widely circulated. He was arrested in November 2011.

Human rights groups have long campaigned on his behalf.

"It is absurd that he had to spend more than four years behind bars when his poetry was simply the peaceful expression of his conscientiously held beliefs," said Amnesty International's James Lynch.

"We hope that the authorities will take the opportunity of this release to review Qatar's criminal justice system and ensure that such flagrant violations of the right to freedom of expression are not repeated."