Tuesday, July 21, 2009

News at Eleven: [Mounir Said] Hanna received a sentence

of three years in prison and a fine of 100,000 Egyptian pounds (18,000 US dollars) for the poem, after the security officer at his school reported him to authorities.

But an appeals court on Saturday overturned that verdict on the grounds that the educator had written the poem for his own amusement, and had not intended to distribute it.

That Hanna 'was writing his thoughts and did not distribute (the poem) to anyone' showed 'a lack of criminal intent,' the court found.

from Monsters and Critics: Egyptian poet convicted of insulting president freed on appeal

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