An Egyptian civil servant sentenced to three years for writing a satirical poem about President Hosni Mubarak is to be freed on appeal, a justice official said yesterday.

Amateur poet Munir Said Hanna Marzuq was acquitted on appeal on Saturday because "he had no intention of offending the President," the official said.

The poems "were never intended to be published. He was writing for himself," the official added.

Mr Marzuq was still in detention yesterday awaiting his release, a security official said.

Rights groups say that release orders are not always respected either due to bureaucratic obstacles or in some cases where defendants are rearrested immediately after their release. Mr Marzuq had been given the maximum sentence for insulting the head of state in one of the poems he wrote for friends in the hope that one day they would be turned into song.

Mr Marzuq was jailed in Maghagha, southern Egypt, in May, after a colleague lodged a formal complaint about the poem deemed insulting to Mr Mubarak, in power since 1981.

The case came to light after the penalised poet's brother appealed to the 81-year-old Mubarak for clemency.

The newspaper did not publish the offending verses.

Egyptian law says that anyone insulting the President can be jailed for between 24 hours and three years.