Kuwait

Kuwaiti Activist Abdullah Fairouz Abdullah Abd al-Kareem was handed down a five-year sentence followed by permanent exile over his Twitter comments.

“Kuwait’s highest court could have created a remedy for a slew of prosecutions that violate constitutional guarantees of free speech,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The court squandered that opportunity.”

Local police arrested Musab Shamsah in May for a tweet posted earlier that month, reflecting his opinion on the theological role of Muslim imams. The sentence was based on article 111 of the penal code, which prohibits mocking religion, with a maximum one-year sentence.

Hamad al-Naqi was sentenced for insulting the Prophet Mohammed and the kings of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, among other charges.

On 2 October 2013, protesters from Kuwait’s Bidun community gathered in three districts to call for the realisation of their rights as residents of Kuwait. Their call was responded to with violence.

All the activists, netizens and human rights defenders jailed for insulting Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, were freed on 6 August 2013 under a pardon announced by the emir to mark the end of Ramadan.

An appeal court’s decision to uphold a 20-month prison sentence against a teacher for political comments she made on Twitter further erodes the right to free speech in Kuwait.

Huda al-Ajmi, teacher, is one of at least 35 people prosecuted in Kuwait for ‘offending the emir’ over Twitter since October 2012. Kuwaiti social media activists have been rallying behind the other cases over the last months, but did not support al-Ajmi in this one.

Huda al-Ajami, a 37-year-old teacher, is the latest citizen to be sentenced by a Kuwaiti court to 11 years in prison for insulting the emir on Twitter.

Since a political crisis in June 2012, authorities have charged dozens of politicians, online activists, and journalists with “offending” the emir, Kuwait’s head of state, Human Rights Watch has learned from the defendants, their lawyers, and human rights activists.

A draft media law being proposed by the Kuwaiti government would allow the authorities to fine journalists up to 300,000 dinars (1 million dollars) for criticizing the emir, and impose sentences of up to 10 years in prison on journalists who insult God or the Prophets of Islam.

Two kuwaiti journalists are facing up to five years in prison on charges of attacking the emir’s honour and authority and insulting the emirate’s tradition values.

The acquittal of five Kuwaiti online activists charged with “offending the emir” could help ensure that Kuwaitis can freely express critical political opinions, Human Rights Watch said. Muhammad al-Ajmi, Faris al-Balhan, Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, Fahd al-Jufaira and Rashid Al-Enzi were acquitted by the criminal court on February 13, 2013.

Three former members of Kuwait’s parliament have been convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for “offending the emir” after they spoke at a gathering in the hosue of a former member of parliament on 10 October 2013.

Apart from their geography and shared culture, what Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain have in common is aging authoritarian leadership coupled with a young, Internet-savvy populace: an obvious recipe for tension.

Kuwait’s reputation for respecting freedom of expression has been dwindling in the face of a recent surge in arrests of bloggers, activists, and media professionals. Blogger Gamal El-Dawi has been sentenced to two years in prison for tweeting.