KUWAIT CITY: A Kuwaiti court yesterday declined to rule in the case of a pro-opposition media owner whose citizenship was revoked by the government, a lawyer said.
As part of a crackdown on dissent, the oil-rich Gulf state in July withdrew the citizenship of the family of Ahmad Jabr Al Shemmari and shut down his satellite television station and newspaper.
His lawyer challenged the citizenship move at the administrative court, saying that it violated the constitution because Shemmari was a Kuwaiti by birth.
“The court said that ruling on the case was outside its jurisdiction,” the lawyer, Al Humaidi Al Subaiei, wrote on Twitter.
He criticised the decision for not following verdicts by the Supreme Court in similar cases.
The decision is not final as it can still be challenged before the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. Subaiei said he was confident it would be overturned.
In August, Kuwait also revoked the citizenship of a former Islamist opposition MP and his brothers and sisters, in addition to 10 activists including leading cleric Nabil Al Awadhi.
New York-based Human Rights Watch at the time denounced the action as a “crackdown on people seeking reform” in Kuwait, which unlike other Gulf states has a democratically elected parliament.
“No government has the right to strip away its people’s citizenship simply because it disapproves of them, their opinions, or their actions,” HRW said.AFP
