KUWAIT: A prominent Kuwaiti opposition politician was sentenced to five years in jail yesterday for insulting the ruling emir, his lawyer said, in a ruling expected to stoke political tension in the Gulf Arab state.
Kuwait, an Opec member and US ally across the Gulf from Washington’s main regional adversary Iran, has avoided the sort of mass pro-democracy unrest seen in other Arab states. But tensions have risen between former members of parliament and the government, long dominated by the Al Sabah family.
The Kuwaiti criminal court found Musallam Al Barrak, an outspoken former member of parliament, guilty of insulting H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah in a speech in October last year in which he appealed to the emir to avoid “autocratic rule”.
Barrak said the opposition had decided to stage a protest march after evening prayers. Ahead of the court decision, the government put a special forces squad on alert and boosted police patrols, according to the Al Qabas daily. “I did not insult the emir. I addressed the head of the state,” Barrak told the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television in an interview. “My speech to the head of the state and addressing authorities is permitted.”
After the sentencing, the latest manifestation of a crackdown on opposition activists, the Kuwaiti stock market briefly dipped by 1.3 percent but rebounded later. Kuwait was buffeted by large street protests last year after the emir changed voting laws, which prompted the opposition to boycott a general election in December and produced a parliament more friendly toward the government. While Kuwait allows more freedom of speech than some other Gulf Arab states, the emir has the last say in state affairs and is deemed “immune and inviolable” in the constitution. There has been a series of political trials in Kuwait of late that have drawn rebuke abroad and anger at home.
“Musallam Al Barrak is not just a (member of a) tribe and a political trend, but a conscience of a nation struggling to protect its rights, freedoms and wealth,” former opposition MP Osama Al Shaheen wrote on his Twitter account. “Consciences cannot be locked up,” he said.
Protest demonstrations over local issues in Kuwait often occur but violence has been rare. Barrak’s lawyer, Mohammed Abdulqader Al Jassem, said the defence team was considering filing an appeal, saying the decision was in violation of the constitution.
He said the ruling stipulated that the sentence be implemented immediately but the judge left it to the Interior Ministry to decide when to take Barrak into custody. In February, US-based Human Rights Watch said that since last October, prosecutors had charged nearly 25 people with offending the emir, sentencing at least six to jail terms.Reuters
