A decay in freedom of speech and expression takes place in Kuwait. The country that was once the best in freedom of expression and press freedom is now imprisoning activists for tweeting and banning publication of books.
Since the issuance of the cybercrime act in January 2016, the public prosecution referred dozens of activists to be tried for their opinion. Accusations are mostly “insulting the prince, the judiciary, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain” but also, defaming the Islamic religion, which are all elastic accusations that mix between criticism and insulting.
The following are examples of violations committed against freedom of expression and press freedom.
Jailing and persecution for tweeting
- On 31st January 2018, the Appeal Court supported a one year sentence against lawyer and former MP Abdul Hamid Dashti, for insulting the judiciary. The total prison sentences against Dashti are 56 years.
Dashti is living outside Kuwait. He is facing accusations of “insulting the judiciary, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and damaging the relations between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain”.
Dashti is known for criticizing the Saudi and Bahraini regimes along with criticizing his country’s participation in the war on Yemen.
- On the 4th of February, the Criminal Court issued another sentence against tweep, Abdullah Al Saleh, to be imprisoned for five years. It is worth mentioning that Saleh sought asylum in the UK. Saleh is facing sentences with a total of 31 years in prison.
- On 26th July 2018, Kuwaiti Criminal Court issued a verdict in absentia against “Saqr al Hashash, a blogger who lives abroad, of 10 years in prison, over accusations of insulting the Emir, increasing total verdicts against Hashash to 80 years in prison in cases related to tweeting.
#Tweeting_is_not_a_crime
In February 2018, activists launched hashtag #tweeting_is_not_a_crime, to put pressure on the regime and the parliament to amend laws restricting freedom of expression, also to release detainees accused of tweeting and drop charges against fugitives.
The campaign recorded 543 cases against tweeps who were sentenced to imprisonment. Moreover, prisoners of conscience reached 40 citizens and dozens of fugitives, 5 of them sought asylum, declaring their intention not to return to Kuwait.
- Insulting the Emir
Persecution and verdicts continued against tweeps claiming they are insulting the Emir.
- Hamed Turkey Boyabes
On 8 January 2018, Kuwait Criminal Court sentenced Hamed Turkey Boyabes, a writer and former al Shaab newspaper editor-in-chief, to two years imprisonment with the suspension of penalty for three years, over charges of insulting the Emir. The court sentenced Boyabes, also, to two years for insulting Saudi Arabia and UAE, suspending the sentence for three years under the condition of commitment to discipline, it also ordered the confiscation of his mobile phone.
The public prosecution accused Boyabes of insulting the Emir, criticizing his authority and doubting his powers, on the background of a number of tweets he posted on his account. Yet, he denied all charges.
After the verdict was handed down, Boyabes wrote in a tweet: thank God, the criminal court suspended the implementation of a two-years in prison for three years for being committed to discipline in the case of insulting the Emir and defaming his powers, thank you, God.
The court released him after two months of detention pending case consideration. He paid bail of 1000 Dinar (more than 3000 dollars).
- Abdullah Fayrouz
Abdullah Fayrouz, an activist and human rights defender, was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and the verdict was supported by the Court of Cassation on 15th October 2018, over charges of insulting the Emir.
The penalty department in the Appeal Court upheld the first degree verdicts issued in 2014 to imprison Fayrouz to 5 years and deport him because he is Egyptian. Fayrouz asserted that his mother is Egyptian and his father is Kuwaiti and he has the two nationalities. The Minister of Interior delays the implementation of the dual nationality verdict, he submitted the text of the verdict to the court, which rejected the penalty of exile, and upheld the verdict of imprisonment.
The public prosecution accused Fayrouz of insulting the Emir by writing, defaming his powers and doubting his rights and authority, by posting phrases that carry the same meaning on twitter.
Violations against human rights defenders
1- Dissolving “Horrya” association and imprisoning Dashti
On 28 June 2018, Hind Sobeih, Minister of Social Solidarity, issued a decree of dissolving the board of trustees of Horrya association, assigning a new temporary board for six months, under claims of violating the statutes of the association. Nevertheless, a number of activists belive that the real reason for this dissolution is connected to a tweet by one of the members “insulting the Sharia law (Islamic law)”.
On 23 October 2018, the Misdemeanor Court issued a 3 months prison sentence with a suspension of the penalty for 3 years and a bail of 100 Dinar (330$) over accusations of insulting the Islamic religion on Twitter.
Dashti turns himself in to implement the verdict of 6 months imprisonment in July, yet he appealed the verdict.
2-Lawyer Abir Al Haddad
Unknown persons hacked the twitter account of Abir Al Haddad, lawyer, on 6th October 2018, four days after she filed a lawsuit against the president of the Central Authority of Illegal Residents Situation (Bedon) for his poor job performance.
On the 2nd of October, Haddad submitted a complaint to the administrative court against the president of the Central Authority of Illegal Residents Situation, Saleh Al Fadala, for his failure in amending the situation of the “Bedon” in Kuwait and protecting their civil and human rights. She accused Fadal of complicating their everyday lives.
Since she declared her intention to sue Fadala in August 2018, Haddad received a number of threats from Fadal’s supporters, not to mention defamation in the media through fake accounts on Twitter. She was accused of seeking fame, defaming the country doubting her patriotism.
Violations against media
- On 5 June 2018, the Appellate Misdemeanors Court sentenced Abdul Aziz al Qanaei, a writer, to two months in prison, on charges of insulting the Islamic religion by participating in a TV show on al Jazeera Channel, on the background of a complaint filed by the cybercrimes administration submitted to the prosecution.
In a message published on Al Watan Egyptian website, Qenaei said that he and his family got death threats and that they accused him of blasphemy.
On 11 October 2018, the Misdemeanors Court sentenced Thamer Al Dakhil, a media worker known as Borashed, to one-month in prison and a fine of 2000 Dinar, for mobile phone misuse, yet it acquitted him from insulting the judiciary on social media.
It is worth mentioning that the public prosecution detained Dakhil and released him the next day, after he was interrogated about a complaint submitted by the cybercrime administration accusing him of insulting the judiciary and the prosecution.
Dakhil was accused on the background of a tweet he published criticizing a company building a new building for the prosecution, as it put its name on the building. He denied the accusation, clarifying that he did not intend to insult the judiciary, he was just criticizing a governmental procedure.
Entering the Parliament Case:
On 8 July, the Court of Cassation issued a verdict imprisoning 13 defendants for 3 years and 6 months, two years imprisonment against 3 defendants, two of them are current MPs whom the Parliament did not lift their parliamentary immunity, the two parliament members are: Dr. Gomaa Al Harbsh and Dr. Walid al Tabtbaaei. Not to mention 6 parliament members: Khaled Al Tahous, Faisal Al Mosallam, Mubarak Al Waalan, Salem al Namlan, Mosallam al Barak, and Fahd al Khonna.
The court refrained from sentencing 33 defendants, including Suleiman al Jassem, a human rights defender. 18 were acquitted.
In May Former parliament member, Mosallam al Barak, had left Kuwait to Turkey in May before the verdict. After the verdict issuance others left too among them the two parliament members.
However, parliament members, in the parliamentary session held on 30th October, rejected lifting the immunity of the two MPs.
The case took 7 years deliberated in Kuwaiti courts.
Banning and Censorship
- Kuwaiti authorities canceled a lecture under the title of “The spiritual horizon for humanity”, which was supposed to be given by Egyptian intellectual Youssef Zeidan and it was supposed to be held on the 25th May 2018 in Radisson Blue Hotel.
A number of parliament members had demanded to ban Zeidan from lecturing in Kuwait for “doubting the Prophet’s heritage and religion” as they claimed.
Zeidan said “I was taking a nap when the phone rang and an employee in the hotel told me that a security officer is waiting for me in the lobby. I went to meet him, he checked my passport and some of the visas, then he said you are leaving today, where would you like to go, I told him that I have a lecture tonight, he said that it was canceled, I said I will go to Egypt immediately.”
- The Ministry of Communication banned the publication and distribution of 4000 books, some of them are international novels which were previously allowed in Kuwait, for example, “Granada” by Radwa Ashour, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” by Victor Hugo.
Protest events escalated after banning the books, including demonstrations and hashtags on Twitter like #banned_in_Kuwait and #take_a_picture_of_a_banned_book_in_your_library.
