Saudi poet is jailed and editor loses job for attack on 'corrupt' Islamic judges

A poet who penned a scathing criticism of Saudi Arabia's Islamic judges has been jailed and the newspaper editor who published the poem sacked.

Prince Nayef, the Interior Minister, ordered the dismissal of Mohammed Mokhtar al-Fal, editor-in-chief of the Arabic-language Al-Madina, a few days after the poem, "The Corrupt on Earth", appeared in the newspaper on 10 March, a Saudi official said yesterday. The poet, Abdul Mohsen Musalam, was jailed, but details of the charge were not clear and it was not known whether he would face a formal trial.

Musalam's poem accused the Islamic judges of taking bribes and ruling unjustly to please "tyrants". The poem's introduction read: "It is sad that in the Muslim world, justice is suffering from a few judges who care for nothing but their bank accounts and their status with the rulers."

Musalam, a former editor at the English-Language Saudi Gazette, took his title from the Koran, which rules that "the corrupt on earth" must be put to death. The poem reads, in part: "How many [sacred] verses and sayings you have slaughtered. Your beards are smeared with blood. You indulge a thousand tyrants and only the tyrant do you obey."

An official at the government-controlled newspaper refused to comment, saying only that "the poem was published, that's that, and al-Fal is no longer with us".

Criticising judges and other religious authorities is rare in Saudi Arabia. But last week, Saudi newspapers launched an unprecedented attack on the religious police, the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, accusing them of blocking rescue attempts by male firefighters and paramedics during a fire at a girls' school in Mecca, because the pupils were not wearing appropriate clothing. Fifteen girls died and 50 were injured.

Prince Nayef defended the religious police, denied the stories and criticised newspapers for reporting "news which turns out to be untrue".