Lebanese Artist Jailed For Song That Satirized The President [Update: He Was Released]

Last year, I linked to a cool video clip that everyone was passing around on Facebook and Twitter. It was a fun, well produced satirical song by the name of “General Suleiman” created by a budding artist named Zeid Hamdan.

Today, this message was posted on Facebook by some of his friends:

Zeid Hamdan has been arrested today for his song General Suleiman, after 2 years of its release. The investigations have been happening for 3 weeks now, after the video clip has been seen by the General Security in Lebanon. Today, Zeid rode his bike and went to the Palace of Justice, thinking he’s going to sign some papers and go back home. Surprisingly, he didn’t go back home. He was arrested. No trial is scheduled yet, and we don’t know what the verdict will be

Naturally, a Facebook campaign for supporting him was swiftly created.

But why now?

There is really no interesting answer to that question. Some are trying to blame the Mikati government and the new minister of interior, but this is not the first time President Sleiman throws his critics in jail. The last time was during the Hariri Premiership.

The answer is more likely to be boring: A security official probably bumped into the video by mistake (now that 3G internet is being tested in Lebanon, expect a closer official eye on YouTube) and sought to gain brownie points by bringing it to the attention of the President’s handlers.

The Lebanese President is not a “cultural terrorist” as some are already calling him on Facebook. He’s just an old-fashionned Lebanese Patriarch. When asked why he jailed his Facebook critics, he responded: “I’m sure that the parents of those kids didn’t know what they were writing”

Update: Hamdan was released