Kuwaiti teacher given 11-year sentence for Twitter criticism of Government

A teacher in Kuwait has been given an 11-year sentence for offensive tweeting against the country’s monarch, calling for his ouster. This comes amid increasing tightening of internet freedom laws across the Gulf region.

Huda al Ajmi, 37, faces three separate charges, which together amount to the longest sentence for a crime of such a nature in Kuwait, according to the country’s political opposition groups.

The charge for insulting the Emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah, whom the constitution describes as ‘immune and inviolable’, alone, carries one year. The other terms were both five years, given for encouraging a rebellion against the regime and for breaking the law on public discussions.

Huda al Ajmi will be able to appeal her three sentences.

This type of government crackdown on online activity has been on the rise in Kuwait, despite the country priding itself on being generally more liberal state than its neighbors.

Although managing to land an appeal, last year, a former MP had been served a five-year sentence for insulting the Emir, when he gave a speech saying the ruler would not succeed in “taking Kuwait into the abyss of autocracy.”

Kuwaiti citizen checks his Twitter feed. (Reuters / Stephanie McGehee)

As for the Gulf Arab region as a whole, it has also been seen as collectively acting to limit internet freedoms. The measures a lot of them have taken include restricting content on social media sites, making “offending” posts punishable by extensive jail sentences.

Aside from Kuwait: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have all tightened controls on Internet freedoms recently, targeting social media and phone applications alike in their effort to stifle freedom of speech.
Across the Gulf, dozens of journalists and social media users have been arrested since the beginning of the year for being in violation of the uncompromising national laws. Kuwait has arrested at least six since the beginning of 2013.

However, women serving time for such crimes are not a common sight in the Gulf state. Two female activists have recently narrowly escaped jail by having their sentences suspended.

Of all the Arab states in the region, Kuwait has suffered the least amount of anti-government violence and uprisings, but the number of people speaking out over Facebook or Twitter and being arrested for it is no lower than elsewhere.

The most recent political unrest in the country has erupted in December 2012, after the Emir had introduced a controversial change to electoral law, and was widely blamed by opposition groups for attempting to deny them a majority.

Kuwait has been a member of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) since 1996, which protects the right to freedom of expression, including peaceful criticism of public officials.

Actually, this has gone on for years, only now we are starting to hear and find out more on the lame whore medias-

Well, considering that Obama government has admitted to tapping phones and invading personal emails why should it surprise us that other countries that are not as "free" as the USA do it all the time?

Personally I think the jail sentences ought to be reversed - the government personages do the time because 'they did the crime." If you or I did what they do we would never see the light of day (kinda like this rv thing with the dinar so far).

It just proves that those in power don't know how to use power and the sure can abuse it to their liking. Just once they need to collectively get behind something (like this revaluation) and do something positive for everyone including themselves. They don't have to be greedy - there is enough in this for everybody -- the residual overflow from this event will fill many coffers and they don't even need to tax the initial event. Just think of the side taxes already in place i.e.: gasoline tax, excise tax, import tax, cigarette tax, alcohol tax, sales tax, luxury tax, property tax, income tax, corporate tax, driver's license tax, dog tag tax, parking tax, car registration tax, ..... . Shoot, they got so many taxes already that one has to have a lawyer, an accountant and a priest just to exist. Why the priest? To absolve the tax collector (the taxpayer sure isn't). Oh, don't worry about the politicians in Washington City - the House and Senate members are EXEMPT from most taxes they levy on the rest of us. Yep, we woke up to a "beautiful" world!!!

Here is what ought to be done to the government personages who think they are above the law and the people:

I agree fully!!

And this is the same government who can't get 'Rachel from Card Services' phone number and stop dang phone calls!

For members outside the US: This is a robo call that has been going on for years. It a identity theft scam under the pretense of lowering credit card interest rates