KUWAIT CITY: International advocacy group Human Rights Watch called on Kuwait yesterday to stop targeting opponents through revoking their citizenship and to reinstate withdrawn nationalities. Kuwait was damaging its reputation with the practice, HRW said.
“Kuwaiti authorities should immediately stop stripping nationals of their citizenship because they exercise free speech or other legitimate human rights,” New York-based HRW said. They should “reinstate the citizenship of people whose citizenship has been withdrawn on those grounds,” it added. In the past few months, Kuwait revoked the citizenship of 33 people and most of their family members.
HRW said that at least three of the cases appeared to be politically motivated. The state in July withdrew the citizenship of the family of Ahmad Jabr Al Shemmari and shut down his satellite television station and newspaper.
In August Kuwait revoked the citizenship of a former Islamist opposition lawmaker and his brothers and sisters, in addition to 10 activists including leading cleric Nabil Al Awadhi. Also stripped of his nationality was Saad Al Ajmi, spokesman of the Popular Action Movement, a nationalist opposition group.
Trial of Bahraini activist starts
MANAMA: Prominent Bahr-aini rights activist Nabeel Rajab went on trial yesterday over remarks published on his Twitter account that were critical of state institutions, his lawyer said, in a case that has drawn criticism from international civil society groups. Rajab is one of the most high-profile pro-democracy campaigners in the Arab world, and founder of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. The hearing began yesterday afternoon, where the court refused to release Rajab, according to his Twitter account. The hearing was adjourned until October 29. At the beginning of the month, Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior said that Rajab had been summoned for questioning by the General Directorate of Anti-corruption and Economic and Electronic Security “regarding tweets posted on his Twitter account that denigrated government institutions”.
18 killed at Shia mosque in Baghdad
BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber detonated explosives at a Shia mosque in western Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 18 people, security and medical officials said. The blast in the Harthiyah area, which also wounded at least 30 people. In further violence, a roadside bomb exploded near a security forces patrol in the Tarmiyah area north of Baghdad, killing at least four people.
Agencies
