There are strong indications that Kuwait may be due for an ‘Arab Spring’, following ongoing tensions between the government, opposition and pro-democracy activists. In the last few months the Kuwaiti government has punished several social media users for insulting its ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah.
In the latest move on 10 June, a Kuwait court jailed a female teacher for 11 years for comments against the emir, whom she also publicly canvassed on Twitter to be removed. Huda al-Ajmi (37), who is widely expected to appeal against the sentence, was also convicted of abusing her mobile phone.
Reports say that the government has been hitting Twitter users for insulting the emir, whom the constitution describes as “immune and inviolable”. Just last month, prominent opposition figure and former parliamentarian Mussallam al-Barrak was facing a five-year sentence for “undermining” the emir (by calling on him not to be “autocratic” at a political rally) but this was quashed at an appeals court, according to his lawyer.
This is one among a number of cases where the government has tried to punish people for speaking out against injustice and oppression in the country. In many incidences it appears the court is being politicised, and there is a strong indication that Kuwait’s political crisis is now at a critical situation. Unless there is an urgent and true political reform in the oil-rich Arab state – the focal point of the Gulf War more than 20 years ago – there is no doubt that what we have seen in countries such as Libya and Egypt will surely come to pass in Kuwait.
