Kuwait Court Jails Extremist Man for Writing Anti-Shia Remarks on Twitter

The sentence, which was handed down to al-Bathali on Sunday in Kuwait City, is not final, as he can still challenge the sentence in higher courts. However, he has to remain in prison until his appeals are further examined. 

On the other hand, the same Kuwaiti court will deliver a verdict on Tuesday against a local Shia blogger, who is accused of using his Twitter account to slight the House of Saud and the House of Al-Sabah — the family that has ruled Kuwait for the past 259 years. 

Nasser Abul was arrested nearly four months ago and tried on the pumped-up charges of undermining the country’s national interests and endangering Kuwait’s relations with Saudi Arabia. 

The 26-year-old denied the charges and claimed that he was setup. Abul stated his account was hacked and the hackers had written the remarks on his Twitter account and that he had deleted them as soon as he saw them. 

Kuwaiti human rights groups are calling on the emirate to release the “prisoner of conscience” who was just “exercising his right to freedom of expression”. 

kuwaiti youth groups have been periodically calling for protests in the emirate since the Arab Spring hit the Middle East and North Africa earlier this year.