No freedom of speech in Kuwait

Ayyad al-Harbi is a Kuwaiti tweeter. Two months ago he criticised the country's Emir online. He was arrested, and today he was sentenced to two years imprisonment:

A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to two years in prison on Monday for insulting the country's ruler on Twitter, his lawyer said, the second person to be jailed for the offence in as many days.

[...]

The court sentenced Ayyad al-Harbi, who has more than 13,000 followers on Twitter, to the prison term two months after his arrest and release on bail.

Harbi used his Twitter account to criticise the Kuwait government and the emir. He tweeted on Sunday: "Tomorrow morning is my trial's verdict on charges of slander against the emir, spreading of false news."

And he's not the only one. Yesterday a second man, Rashid Saleh al-Anzi, was also jailed for two years for a similar offence. Sadly, the exact things these people said are not available - but the idea that someone should be jailed for criticising those in power is ridiculous and undemocratic. But then, Kuwait is a monarchy - so "ridiculous and undemocratic" pretty much sums up its entire constitutional structure.

Another bad sign

It looks like Egypt isn't the only place where an unelected regime is using the courts to nullify election results it doesn't like. Back in February, Kuwait's Emir dissolved the National Assembly and called new elections after his government was undermined by corruption scandals. Those elections were handily won by the opposition, who have since held the (unelected) government to account much more than their predecessors. And so Kuwait’s Constitutional Court has nullified the elections and reinstated the previous Parliament, causing a constitutional crisis.

The good news is that not even those MPs who kept their seats think this is OK. Over half of them have already resigned, saying that they do not want to serve in a parliament rejected by the people. From the look of it, this renders the Assembly inquorate and unable to effectively function (quorum for passing laws is apparently 33 members out of 50). The obvious solution is new elections, which will likely produce a similar outcome to the previous ones - but there's no guarantee that the regime won't simply pull the same trick, rather than be subjected to proper Parliamentary scrutiny.

New Fisk

Gulf War legacy flares as 'stingy' Kuwait puts the squeeze on Iraq

No freedom of speech in Kuwait

Nasra Alshamery is an Australian citizen. In January, while on a trip to Kuwait with her family, she was involved in a dispute with Kuwaiti immigration officials. Her husband and family were beaten, and she was threatened with rape, before being arrested. She has now been sentenced to two years' imprisonment for insulting the country's ruler.

Like Thailand's lese majeste law, this would be laughable if it wasn't so serious. A woman is looking at two years jail for something which should not be a crime in any civilised country. The fact that the charge seems to be a punishment for talking back to a self-important official just makes it worse. But I guess that's Kuwait for you - a despotism from top to bottom.