Well-known Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef dies at 87

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The well-known Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef died on Sunday at the age of 87, the Iraqi parliament’s culture committee has confirmed.

Born near Basra in 1934, Youssef was an Iraqi poet, writer and translator who published 43 poetry collections over the course of his career. He was one of the most respected poets in the Arab world.

"We received with great sadness and sorrow the news of the poet Youssef's death, who is considered one of the figures of contemporary poetry and one of the founders of the Union of Writers in Iraq, read a statement from the culture committee obtained by Rudaw English.

Youssef died in a London hospital from complications from lung cancer, it confirmed.

Youssef's writings on the US occupation of Iraq and the 2005 sectarian war sparked a lot of controversy. Some accused him of sectarianism, insulting religious symbols, and attacking the person of the Prophet Muhammad and the Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

His controversial political beliefs were clear in his poetry, which eventually led him to living in exile in the United Kingdom.

Youssef described himself as "the last communist,” the title of a poetry collection he first published in 2007, due to his disagreement with the communist party's support of the US invasion in 2003.

In April, Iraqi Minister of Culture Hassan Nadhim retracted a request he submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pay for Youssef’s medical treatment, a wave of public criticism.

The poet was awarded the Sultan al Owais Prize, and the Cavafy Prize from the Hellenic Society. In 2005 he won the Italian International Prize for the best foreign author. He also published ten books that included translations of the poems of major international poets.