they put a call for him: "Mohammad, you have to come to the police, to report to the police. You have, Mohammad, to come to the police and report." And he kept saying, "Why should I report? For what?" Then he called the son of the emir--he is a friend of his son, by the way--and told him, "Why they are calling me in the police?" He said, "No, no, no. Just go there, and don't worry. It's just a routine register--I mean, some against you."
He went there, but he felt there was something, you know, planned for him. And he was questioned by the police. "You said that poem?" He said, "Yeah, I said that poem." "Where?" "I said it in my--and I'm replying to the other poem. So what is wrong with it?" He said, "You meant to say that, to encourage in the attempting of the coup?" He said, "No, I didn't." He denied it. And he said, "Ah, but you spoke a little bit that you were saying that the emir is not doing his job properly, according to the constitution." He said, "No, who made this interpretation?" They said, "Well, we think it's been interpreted that way." So he said, "No, no, no, no, no. If I have insulted the emir on this, just continue, please, reading the poem. You will see in the end of it, I was really thanking the emir, not only disappointing him." Then they said, "OK. Unfortunately, we have to arrest you." That moment, with his cousins, friends, and he said, "I will need--please, call Dr. Najeeb al-Nuaimi. I need him to be my lawyer."
from Democracy Now: Qatari Human Rights Official Defends Life Sentence for Poet Who Praised Arab Spring Uprisings
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