Poet's son nabbed for sex poem
2002-07-07 10:24
Cairo - A Cairo court has sentenced a man to prison for allegedly
posting his father's sexually explicit poetry on the internet, an
Egyptian human rights organisation said on Saturday.
The June 30 verdict finding Shohdi Naguib guilty of "possessing immoral materials" constitutes a "new setback for freedom of opinion and expression in Egypt," the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) said in a press release.
The sentence of one year's imprisonment and a 200 Egyptian pound (approximately US$42) fine, however, was suspended pending
appeal.
Naguib was arrested in November of 2001 on suspicion of posting one of his father Naguib Surour's poems, whose title is considered obscene, and is often referred to by the more acceptable title of the Ummiyat (roughly, Mother Verses).
Naguib's lawyer Hafez Abu Saada, who is also the EOHR's chairman, owns the website where the poem is posted.
Even if Naguib did own the site, however, the charge of
"possessing" immoral material makes the case an issue of freedom of expression, Saada said.
The Ummiyat uses highly graphic language, and has been described by one critic as "a direct and forceful stream of abuse, invective and lyricism" aimed at Egyptian officialdom, whom Surur blamed for losing the 1967 war against Israel and other failings.
Surur, whom many Egyptian critics consider a troubled poetic and theatrical genius, died in 1978. Although the Ummiyat was never published in his lifetime, it has been available online for at least three years. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA