KUWAIT CITY: Press rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders yesterday slammed last week’s arrest of a Kuwaiti blogger who has been charged with blasphemy over a controversial tweet.
Mohammed Al Ajmi was released on Tuesday after a week behind bars over a comment posted on Twitter in which he criticised an Islamist group. Paris-based Reporters without Borders called on authorities in the Gulf state to withdraw the blasphemy charge faced by Ajmi.
“Prosecuting this netizen over a tweet is absurd,” said RSF assistant research director Virginie Dangles. She accused Kuwaiti authorities of “cracking down on outspoken dissidents.”
Rights activist Ajmi, who goes by the handle abo3asam on the micro-blogging website, had in a August 11 tweet accused members of the Salafist group Al Jamiya of blindly following their religious leader Hamad Al Uthman.
Ajmi was arrested on August 27 after lengthy questioning.
AFP
