Amnesty slams 'conditional' release of Bahraini poet

Published today in the Gulf Times Amnesty International yesterday slammed the conditions allegedly attached to the release of a Bahraini activist jailed for reading a poem at a pro-reform protest. “Ayat al-Qarmezi, a poet and university student at the Faculty of Teachers in Bahrain, sentenced to one year in prison for reading a poem, was released on July 13,” the rights group said in a statement. “Shortly after her release, Amnesty International talked to her lawyer and family, who said that Ayat was well and happy to be free. However, her release is reportedly conditional on not travelling outside Bahrain or speaking to the media about her detention,” it said. “Amnesty International is calling on the authorities to remove any that have been imposed, to annul her conviction and to clarify her current legal status,” the statement said. Qarmezi read a poem addressed to Bahrain’s King Hamad at a February protest in the capital Manama. “We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery / Don’t you hear their cries, don’t you hear their screams?” it said.