Kuwaiti opposition activists demonstrate in downtown Kuwait City on December 15, 2012 to demand the dissolution of the new parliament.
A court in Kuwait has sentenced an opposition youth activist to five years in prison for insulting the Emir on Twitter website, a rights group said.
“The court passed the maximum jail term against Mohammad Eid al-Ajmi for insulting the emir on Twitter,” the director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad al-Humaidi said on Sunday.
Ajmi, who is the third opposition youth activist to be convicted for insulting the Emir, will begin serving his sentence immediately.
According to the rights group, large numbers of activists are on trial on similar charges in Kuwait. Last month the court sentenced two activists to two years each in jail each for insulting the emir.
Kuwait’s lower court is also expected to issue its verdict on Tuesday against three former opposition lawmakers for criticizing the Emir at a public rally.
Criticizing the Emir is illegal in Kuwait and is considered a state security charge. Those convicted of the offence face up to five years in jail.
Kuwait, an oil-rich Persian Gulf littoral state, is stuck in growing tensions between the government, controlled by Al Sabah family, and its parliament, dominated by the opposition.
Since the December 1, 2012 parliamentary elections, the opposition has been staging almost daily protests to demand that the new parliament be dissolved and the changes made to the electoral law be reversed.
Activists say a decision to change the electoral law by Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al Sabah is aimed at electing a rubber-stamp parliament.
Kuwait was the first Arab state in the Persian Gulf to establish an elected parliament in 1962. However, the Al Sabah family remained in control of key posts, including the premiership and the ministries of defense, interior, and foreign affairs.
PG/HGH
