Global Voices Advocacy » Mona Kareem

Kuwait: Three Netizens Sentenced to Prison

Mona Kareem — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 10:47:46 +0000

Since the Arab Spring first sparked, Kuwaiti authorities have been following internet users closely and summoning them to interrogation and then sending them to courts for prosecution over different cases that are mostly sectarian or political.

The first case was of Lawrence Al-Rishidi at the beginning of last year and it was kept very low after the orders of state security police. The latter seems to have pressed local media not to discuss the case of Al-Rishidi and after almost one year and a half in jail waiting for his trial, Al-Rishidi was sentenced to ten years in jail for insulting the ruler of the country, an act criminalized by the constitution. The appeal court of Kuwait made its decision based on this charge and other charges such as Al-Rishidi's YouTube videos (which disappeared after his arrest) that contained criticism of the country's system, constitution, and laws. He found the constitution to be corrupt, the laws to be immoral, and called for tribes to elect someone to rule the country after overthrowing the regime. Therefore, Al-Rishidi was sentenced harshly over charges of national security too.

Al-Naqi's picture below a picture of the protest that called for his execution

The other netizen who was sentenced to prison has the most famous case so far. Hamad Al-Naqi is a Shia young man from Kuwait who was arrested for insulting prophet Mohammed, his wife, and his companions and for insulting the rulers of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The prison sentence was 10 years as well from the criminal court and will still go to the appeal court. The fame of Hamad's case is due to the way many citizens and parliament members called for his death to apply Islamic laws despite his claims that his account was hacked. The parliament passed a law to execute anyone insulting God, Islam, the prophet, his companions, and his wife. Hamad was also stabbed in jail by another Kuwaiti who is in jail because of terrorism charges. The blasphemy law was blocked by the Amir himself who has as well blocked an attempt by the parliament to Islamsize national laws. The Amir said the blasphemy law is inconsiderate of sectarian differences and is against the constitution.

Tweep Nasser Al-Ansary

The latest case is on Nasser Al-Ansary, another tweep (@Nas10000) sentenced to five years in jail for insulting the Amir. The criminal court made its decision saying Al-Ansary has insulted the ruler of the country through his tweets. The content of those tweets are still not known.

Kuwait: Tortured for Someone Else's Tweets

Mona Kareem — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:55:18 +0000

Khaled Al-Enizi after his release earlier this month

Throughout the year of 2011, Kuwait has had many cases of arrests of twitter users. It started with two tweeps getting arrested for insulting a religious sect. Other cases had a political nature as those tweeps played a role in protesting the former prime minister who was accused of corruption. Recently, three tweeps were arrested then bailed out for insulting the Amir of Kuwait with the hashtag #بطارية (battery in Arabic) that was interpreted to be mocking the Amir's heart which works on battery.
Among the Bedoon, the stateless community of Kuwait that is denied documentation and basic human rights, there hasn't been any arrests because of social media use; at least not any documented cases. The community has been protesting since February 2011 and many arrests and trials were held against protesters. However, end of last month, marked the first case of a Bedoon arrested for a twitter account which the state security police believed it was established by him. Khaled Al-Enizi, 24 years old, was accused of making a fake account of one of the ministers and insulting the Amir.
According to Bedoon Rights, Khaled was insulted and threatened with rape during interrogation. The police used the “grilling” torture method in which a person gets held up above fire. Khaled’s arm was severely harmed and they had to take him to the hospital where the doctor said that he is fine. He was taken back to be tortured. The police used another method of torture against him called “the room of cooling the dead” that is conducted by telling the victim that a fridge is made for the dead and then put him in it until he confesses.
The State Security police made Khaled stand on one foot as he gets beaten and when he told them it was his weak foot, they hit it harder. They wet him with water and threatened to use electricity to shock his body if he does not confess. As the torture was going, they noticed that the twitter account they accused him of running was actually posting tweets while he’s in custody and thus decided to end the torture and charge him with the regular illegal protesting charges like the other detained protesters. He was bailed out on April the 2nd for 200 Kuwaiti Dinars and will go on trial for illegal protesting.

UAE: Activist Arrested for his Tweets

Mona Kareem — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 10:32:02 +0000

Saleh Aldhaifairi's tweet on getting arrested

With the birth of the Arab Spring, the United Arab Emirates’ authorities seem to be intimidated by any voice asking for reforms and change. The start was with the arbitrary arrests of five activists for signing an online petition and keeping them illegally in custody for months before giving them a ‘pardon’ as part of the annual national celebrations. Shortly afterwards, seven political activists were stripped off their citizenship after an issued order by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the UAE. Lately, a new case of violation of free speech came out after the arrest of Saleh AlDhufairi, an Islamist calling for change.
In his last tweet , AlDhufairi (@SalehAlDhufairi) wrote that he is being arrested from his house in Ras Al-Khaimaa. Dubai police issued a statement explaining:

Dubai Police Spokesman announced that Saleh Al Dhafairi has been arrested on charges of incitement. According to the Dubai Police statement, Al Dhafairi has been accused of incitement through writing or verbally spreading ideas that damage national unity or social peace. The spokesman confirmed that Al Dhafairi will be referred to the Attorney General after 48 hours, stressing that the law punishes sedition-makers. He added that what the accused has done falls under the jurisdiction of the federal law.

In response, Al-Islah Islamic group issued a statement condemning the arrest of AlDhafairi saying those arrests will not stop their demands and that they refuse the acts of stripping citizens off their citizenship or arresting them. Al-Islah indicates that when arrested, AlDhafairi asked for his arrest memo, and in response, state security police broke into his house and arrested him.

Kuwait: Ahmad Mansoor, a UAE blogger denied entry

Mona Kareem — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:57:38 +0000

Blogger and activist Ahmad Mansoor after his release last November

Ahmad Mansoor, UAE's most famous blogger who was detained last year for several months with four other activists for signing an online petition calling for reforms in his country, was denied entry to Kuwait few days ago. The UAE5 including Mansoor were released with a pardon on the 28th of November. Recently, Human Right Watch press conference in Dubai which was planned to release the organization's report on the decline of freedom of expression in the Gulf wealthy state was raided by state security police called off.

Through his twitter account, Mansoor was the one who reported the details of this raid on HRW's press conference. More than a week after, Mansoor went to Kuwait and was denied entry, which makes him the second human rights defender to be denied entry in Kuwait in a very short time period after Kassab Al-Otaibi (@Dr_Kassab ) a Saudi opposition activist based in the UK. Mansoor reported what happened to him in the airport through twitter, as Kuwait was having its vote for parliamentary elections; one of the reasons why there wasn't much attention paid for the incident the UAE blogger had to go through.

Mansoor tweeted:

I'm Kuwait airport now. Prevented from entering. Too bad that this happens in Kuwait; the only democracy in #gcc !!

— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012

#gcc: after an interrogation for about an hour, I was told that I can not enter by the State Security officers.#kuwait #uae

— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012

#gcc #kuwait #uae further told that if I can not find a ticket back, I would be detained until then.

— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012

#gcc #kuwait #uae: off course, preventing me from entering kuwait was based on instruction from UAE authorities.

— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012

Not sure though why authorities in UAE first let me leave Sharjah airport to start with and put Kuwait in this situation. #gcc #kuwait #uae

— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012

Bahrain: Blogger Zainab Al-Khawaja Brutally Arrested

Mona Kareem — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 14:22:34 +0000

A policewoman pulling Zainab Al-Khawaja after handcuffing her

Bahraini blogger Zainab Al-Khawaja, daughter of prominent opposition figure and human rights activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja , who was sentenced to life imprisonment last June, was brutally arrested on Thursday. Her arrest follows the death a 22-year-old man called Ali Al-Gassab when a car drove over him, an “accident” that seems to recur since the protests started in Bahrain this year. Right after the death of Al-Gassab, news of Zainab's arrest circulated online. It was confirmed by the head of Bahrain Human Rights Center Nabeel Rajab and her sister Maryam Al-Khawaja. With her arrest, 28-year-old Zainab, mother of a 2-year-old girl, becomes the fourth member of her family to get arrested after her father, her brother-in-law, and her husband. She has always been vocal against the regime especially through her Twitter account which she uses to post updates from the protests that have rocked her country since February 14.

On Twitter, netizens wrote that as she was getting arrested, Zainab was chanting against the Bahraini King Hamad Al Khalifa, chanting “Down with Hamad.” The following video that spread through YouTube shows Al-Khawaja getting handcuffed by a policewoman. Then, another policewoman comes and beats Zainab on her face, before she was pulled to a parked police van.

Zainab was arrested while she was sitting in a roundabout on the Budaiya Highway, as part of a sit-in called for by protesters called Occupy Budaiya Street which aimed at pressuring the government to release political prisoners and pay tribute to Bahrain's 40-plus martyrs, killed at the hand of security forces since the unrest started.

According to her sister Maryam, Zainab was arrested with another woman called Masooma Al-Sayed and was charged with illegal gathering, assaulting a female officer, and inciting hatred against the regime. The prosecutor decided to detain both women for seven days under investigation. Zainab was sprayed in her eyes when she was arrested and was unable to see for an hour. In the police station, Zainab was beaten on the head, arms and legs, as she was unable to see. She recognized the voice of the policewoman who beat her, but the prosecutor refused to write it down. Her lawyer attempted to show the prosecutor a video of Zainab's arrest, but he refused to see it. The policewoman came to the prosecutor with bandaged arm claiming Masooma and Zainab hit her. Zainab refused to sign the statement unless the name of the policewoman who hit was written down.

UAE: Jail Sentences for Five Activists

Mona Kareem — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:57:11 +0000

UAE Blogger Ahmed Mansoor (IFEX)

Update 1 [28 Nov 2011/1 PM GMT]: The day after the court decisions were made, Attorney Mohammed al-Roken told The Associated Press the public prosecutor’s office confirmed President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s pardon of the five activists as the country celebrates its national day.

Last April, Five activists were arrested in the United Arab Emirates for signing an online petition that demanded reforms in the wealthy Gulf country one of them was blogger Ahmed Mansoor. After the beginning of their trials last June, the five detainees have complained several times from the mistreatment they're getting in prison and from the campaigns bashing them and their families online, one of the reasons that made them take the decision to enter a hunger strike in protest of the violation of their rights and against the fact that they have no right to appeal to court's decisions.

They refused to attend the court hearings as they considered their trials unfair, however, this did not stop the Emirati court from making the decision in a 10 minutes session on the 27th of November to sentence each of Nasser bin Ghaith, a war veteran and a university lecturer at Sorbonne Abu Dhabi, Fahad Salim Dalk, Ahmed Abdul-Khaleq, a stateless of the UAE, and Hassan Ali al-Khamis to two years in jail while prominent blogger Ahmed Mansoor received a 3 years sentence. The five activists were charged for violating article 176 which prohibits insulting state officials, a charge that the detainees denied and instead assured their respect for the UAE figures and their good intentions to demand reforms for the good of their country.

The five activists completed 13 days of hunger strike when they their sentences came out, however, there are no reports yet of whether they are still on hunger strike or not. The court does not allow them to appeal and according to Human Rights Watch, the panel that made the decision was consisted of four foreign judges. The coalition of Alkarama (Dignity), Amnesty International, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Front Line Defenders, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and Index on Censorship, said that “the interim assessment of civil liberties lawyer Jennie Pasquarella raised disturbing questions about the politicization of the case against the men and called for all five to be released immediately and unconditionally and the charges dropped. The groups also called on the UAE authorities to open an independent judicial inquiry into the decision to prosecute the five men.”

When reading the report done by the seven human rights groups, one can see that the five detainees did not have a fair trial. Lawyer Jennie Pasquarella who attended their trials said that the court did not permit access for the detainees to all documents included in their trials. Pasquarella also said that the authorities have interfered in the process as some of the sessions were held secretly and only attended by security representatives. She also said that the court depended on the testimonies of four lawyers representing people who claim to have been victims of the statements made by the activists. The UAE5 have repeatedly refused the charges of inciting violence when writing their reform demands in the locally banned online forum UAE Hewar.

Two days before the court's decisions were made, Dr. Charlotte Peevers, a barrister based in the United Kingdom, on behalf of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) published a briefing paper on suppression of free expression that included threats and intimidation made against the UAE five activists known as “UAE 5”. When reading the 13 pages long paper, one can read several horrific insults and threats made against the activists, most of them supporting prosecuting the detainees to death for ‘betrayal of the country'. After hearing the court's decision, a relative of one of the detainees, blogger Khalifa Al-Nuaimi, was beaten and assaulted by a pro-government supporter who was quoted by Human Rights Watch witness saying: “Even if the detainees are released from jail, we will put them on trial ourselves.”

More than a week ago, a female twitter user from the UAE named Rawda Hamed posted on her account saying that she was summoned for interrogation. Hamed is known on twitter for her support of the UAE5 and she claimed to have entered hunger strike in solidarity with them. Hamed said in her last tweets that this is the fourth time she was called for interrogation and since the 16th of November, she hasn't tweeted any new posts. Unfortunately, no one knows any information about her or any contact information to reach her through.

Remembering Ali Abdulemam

Mona Kareem — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:12:12 +0000

Alaa Abdelfatah and Ali Abdulemam (during the 1st Arab Techies collective meeting in Cairo, 2008)

To know the Arab blogosphere, you need to know Ali Abdulemam, the Bahraini blogger who spent more time in jail than in blogging in the past year. He is one of the fathers of Arab blogging and Bahrain's most famous blogger as he was the founder of Bahrain Online, a forum that the regime blocked in 2002. When Ali’s name comes up, we think of a man who had the courage to challenge the criminal authorities and thus became not only an opposition figure but also an icon for his people and a voice to their struggle. His cell, where he was kept since September 2010 until February 2011, symbolized the oppression that a new generation is facing in Bahrain.

As we are witnessing the case of Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdelfatah challenging the military junta in post-revolution Egypt by refusing to accredit their military trials of civilians and answering their questions, we need to remember that 6 years ago, Ali Abdulemam went through the same challenge when he and his fellow Bahraini blogger Hussain Yousef refused to be bailed out because they did not want to admit to the system and its false accusations. Ali, after his release last February, has disappeared and was sentenced to 15 years in jail for ‘spreading false information and trying to subvert the regime’. Surely, just the way he was denied a lawyer when he was imprisoned last year, Ali like all other Bahrainis after the uprising, was denied a fair trial and was sentenced in absentia.

When speaking to Hussain Yousef about how he and Ali refused to be bailed out back in 2005, he narrated the story in details:

“It was March 2005, we heard of a solidarity protest that took place in front of the police station where we were jailed (Al-Qathibiya police station). We were worried about the safety of the protesters. The long interrogation sessions ended with us and Wael Bualai. They faced us with seven charges. Our lawyers said these charges will lead to the sum up of 107 years in jail! We were laughing at those charges that regimes usually use to kill freedom of speech, such as insulting the king or the royal family, spreading false information, threatening national security, attempting to subvert the regime etc. We rejected the charges, decided to go on a hunger strike, and leaked our news out somehow. We heard that the king was out of the country and that he was faced with our case by journalists wherever he went. Free people stood in solidarity with us from all over the world and Bahrain human rights center did a great job campaigning for us. Statements came out from different organizations and we continued with our hunger strike.

Then, the Interior minister sent someone to ask us to sign an apology to let us out. I asked: for whom? For the king? Or for the people? If it is for the king then let his palace ask us so, and if it is for people, let the parliament come and talk to us. I asked him in return for an apology and told him that we are on a hunger strike and that if we die it will be his responsibility and the responsibility of those who asked to jail us. He offered to bail us out for 1000 Bahraini dinars (around 3000$), and again I rejected. I was taken back to the cell, I explained the situation to my friends, and we agreed. That night we were taken to somewhere unknown and dark. Our eyes were open when we got into the bus and we had intensive security around us and a wave of cars followed us to the new place where we met a person in civilian clothes. The guy started to threaten to put each of us in a separate cell, I asked him who he was and we figured out that he was someone brought back from his vacation just to deal with us. We asked to call our lawyer to inform him of our place and he said no one would know of our place. I said it will be his responsibility if we die and the whole world will know about it. Ali called one of our lawyers. Suddenly, they treated us differently, asked us which cells we like, and we were released the following day. It was the statement of the American Association of Journalists that scared them and we knew more about the calls of the American embassy by reading the cable documents that came out last month through wiki leaks.”

This is an interesting phenomenon that we are witnessing; bloggers are going head-to-head against dictatorships and wrestling their ways out even if they were left alone. It is truly disappointing to see bloggers still getting jailed, tortured, and/or brutalized in the Middle East after the uprisings. Iran, Egypt, and Syria are only behind China when it comes to the number of bloggers and cyber activists harassed or arrested. Saudi Arabia has recently arrested, later released, three vloggers for making an episode on poverty, Kuwait interrogated and arrested five twitter users this year, while a ‘retweet’ in Bahrain might get you interrogated or even jailed.

When speaking with Nasser Weddady, the Mauritanian blogger and activist talked to us about the campaign he launched: “When Ali was arrested in September 2010, Arab bloggers and others from around the globe created one of the nosiest campaigns to demand his release by putting together a showcase for advocates rising through different platforms and multiple mediums.” In comment on what both Ali and Alaa are doing, Weddady added: “This is for liberty; it is a moral stand. These two bloggers chose their principles over their freedoms. It is not about politics, it is about principles.”

Weddady exclaimed: “Ali is a delicate case; he is not a member of a political party because he is above the frame. He was targeted by the regime because when he speaks, there’s a huge blogging community that listens to what he has to say; he has international respect. The stand of world’s democracies towards Ali’s case is shameful. His fate hinges on the world’s complacency towards Bahrain’s dictatorship. We need to realize that this is not only an Arab cause, it is a global one.”

Ali Abdulemam is not a case of his own; he is the face of his people, his generation, and a true example of how online free speech is getting raped by regimes in the Middle East. Founding the Bahrain Online forum in 1998 was a tunnel that Ali digged for Bahrainis to walk out to the world. Revealing his identity in 2002 was seen as a mix of insane courage and suicidal wrestling against a brutal regime. Refusing to be bailed out in 2005, losing his job, and living the nightmare of Bahraini prison in 2010 are all factors that make the world owe this man more than silence. It is a shame how the Arab world and the globe in general are watching the crimes done against Ali and his people, adding water on their revolution to die off. With memory we try to fight for Ali Abdulemam and with spoken words the world should get the Bahraini regime to stop its crimes and to respect the sacred human right of free speech.

Kuwait: More Twitter Users Arrested

Mona Kareem — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:35:00 +0000

Picture of tweep Hamad AlOlayan with his father and two kids after his release

2011 has been the year of defeat for online free speech in Kuwait as netizens have never been harassed as often as they have been in the past few months. Since last April, three netizens were arrested and sentenced to jail for expressing their opinions online and the arrests’ wave has not stopped as two more twitter users got arrested recently and released within 24 hours after the raged reactions that these arrests created among citizens and parliament members. Hamad AlOlayan and Tariq Al-Mutairi are two netizens who have been actively tweeting in criticism of the Prime Minister and some of their recent tweets were seen as a violation of the constitutional 54th article that forbids making any remarks against the Amir as he is “the head of the state and is immune.” Both users have denied the accusations and said they were misinterpreted, yet they will still be interrogated due to a complaint submitted by the public prosecution, despite releasing them.

Many netizens objected and refused the way those twitter users were treated by authorities saying that there is no problem in calling them to court to question their statements and see whether they have violated the constitution or not, yet the arrests are illegal and violate freedom of speech which is a constitutional right for every citizen. Others thought one should never be questioned for expressing his opinion no matter what. The arrests have also made netizens demand a law that protects them from security authorities that are continuously violating their rights to free speech. Kuwaitis suggested that their authorities should accept criticism and work on reforms instead of trying to oppress those who demand change.

Parliament members did not miss this chance to object and use the arrests as one more card against the government. Member of parliament Musalam Al-Barrak claimed that there is a Dubai-based company, owned by a Palestinian, which monitors Twitter activists and is paid by the prime minister’s office. He said the company sends reports to the Ministry of Interior on all what is tweeted on Prime Minister, Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah. A number of parliamentarians are now planning to quiz the interior minister over those arrests and they have condemned these acts as a violation of free speech suggesting that the government is abusing power to silence people. Tens of young men and women protested the following day after the arrests in front of the public prosecution's building and some parliamentarians showed up to this sit-in. Youth, however, criticized the attendance of parliamentarians in this sit-in saying they are trying to take credit instead of working on a law that protects online free speech. Some twitter users found the reactions of some parliamentarians as useless because quizing the interior minister and attending a protest will not solve this on-going issue.

UAE Activists Face Trials for an Online Petition

Mona Kareem — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:25:44 +0000

"Justice for UAE detainees" as published by blogger Khalifa AlNuaimi

An online petition is the only common factor between five detained activists in the United Arab Emirates. Ahmed Mansour, Nasser Bin Ghaith, Fahad Al-Sihhi, Hassan Ali Al Khamis, and Ahmed Abdulhaleq Ahmed are the names. Mansour is a well known blogger and an outspoken secular activist from Dubai, while Bin Ghaith comes from a wealthy family and has served as a consultant for the army beside being a war veteran, a decorated pilot, a columnist, and a lecturer. The other three names are not very well-known for readers outside the UAE as the topic of their trials became a taboo inside the wealthy-family-ran Gulf state. Ahmed Abdulhaleq Ahmed, according to AFP, is a stateless of the UAE, a community that is denied all the rights for documents, and public access to education, medication, and employment; another taboo that the UAE does not like any light shed at, especially by foreign media.

Bin Ghaith was shocked to have been detained. According to his brother, as interviewed by AP, Bin Ghaith was detained for an article he published in www.darussalam.ae a week before his arrest last April. A day before his trial which he refused to show up to beginning of October, Bin Ghaith wrote a letter talking about his case and mentioning that his arrest had to do with opinions he posted in online forums. However, media and local talks link the five detainees in one circle which is the online petition they signed with more than a 100 Emiratis demanding reforms and more freedoms including giving power to the parliament and reconstructing its hierarchy and voting system.

The same blog that published Bin Ghaith's letter, Emirati blogger Khalifa Al-Nuaimi wrote the trial's details that he attended. He said the five activists did not show up yet the trial started with a testimony from the representative of the information ministry answering questions about some online forum. The representative said those who wrote ‘insulting’ comments in the forum cannot be identified, that the web hosting company is American, that the forum's manager cannot be identified, and that the website has been blocked in the UAE since 2010. Al-Nuaimi writes what happened in the trial without specifying which forum they are referring to, who wrote in this forum other than Mansour, and what specifically were the written comments.

In general, the UAE seems to have succeeded in blocking a lot of information and details from the world about this specific trial which is moderated by a court specialized in anti-regime and terrorism cases. When making a decision, this specific court does not allow any appeal. Al-Nuaimi in the same post talked about the games the authorities play through the state security police by grouping people in front of the court to insult the activists and call them ‘traitors', while Bin Ghaith in his letter talked about the mistreatment that he faced while getting arrested and in the last six months he spent in jail. He expressed his shock over the justice system of his country that he never realized its ugly truth until his arrest, and according to different sources, he was denied treatment for a recent skin disease he caught during his time in prison.

Kuwait: Three Netizens Detained

Mona Kareem — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:05:08 +0000

Twitter avatars of Mubarak Al-Bathali (left) and Nasser Abul in a blue t-shirt (right).

Kuwait does not have a history of detaining citizens for expressing their views online; the first arrest case in relevance to the internet happened to Bashar Al-Sayegh (@balsayegh) a Kuwaiti journalist who was detained by the State Security Police four years ago because of a post written in a forum that he monitored called AlOmmah.org. Al-Sayegh was released four days after his arrest due to the intense political sphere Kuwait lived in those few days between different political groups and the government. Other cases of arresting netizens only occurred this year after witnessing the interrogation of a popular local twitter user named Mishari Buyabis (@mbuyabis) who was investigated for hours by the State Security Police, which also made a fuss in Kuwaiti political sphere and through media. The arrest cases were three and they all took place three months ago creating a phobia of ‘where your online opinions can eventually lead you.’

Nasser Abul (@NasserAbuL) was the first to get arrested for his tweets. He had a long timeline filled with insulting tweets of the Sunni sect and severe criticism and insults to the Saudi and Bahraini regimes for their stand against the Bahraini protests. Salafi Parliament member Walid Al-Tabtabai (@Altabtabie) was the first to post snapshots of Abul's tweets and demand his arrest, which eventually put the controversial parliamentarian, once again, under fire from the Shia community inside and outside Kuwait. Abul has spent three months between State Security Police and the Central Prison waiting for his trial and two of the charges against him were “insulting a religious sect and insulting neighboring regimes”, in reference to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. On the 27th of September, Kuwaiti court found Abul guilty of insulting a religious sect and sentenced him to three months in jail, which he already served, and set him free. It is worth mentioning that Abul has denied writing the problematic tweets saying that his account has been hacked and when asked about his twitter avatar with the Bahraini flag he said that he was in a Kuwaiti protest in support of the Bahraini uprising.

Another arrest case of a twitter user happened to a very controversial person called Mubarak Al-Bathali (@mubaark) who has been previously linked with Al-Qaeda and of fundraising money and recruiting men for them through his speeches and visits to different mosques years ago. Al-Bathali openly declares his support of Al-Qaeda but has dedicated himself this year through twitter to being an anti-Shia fanatic with a very insulting tone of language. Locally, Al-Bathali is known for his frequent visits to State Security Police, and this year several Shias filed complaints against him for his tweets. Eventually, Al-Bathali was arrested and he did not deny what he wrote saying that he completely stands for his beliefs, so he was sentenced to three years in prison, which was eventually shortened to six months, for threatening national unity and insulting a religious sect.

The third case is the most mysterious one as Kuwaiti mainstream media avoids talking about it in details. It is the case of a man called Lawrence Al-Rishidi who was arrested for insulting the Kuwaiti Amir (ruler) in a Youtube video, which has disappeared. The Amir, according to the constitution, is the only figure that cannot be insulted nor criticized and it is said that Al-Rishidi has asked him to step down saying that the Arab Spring will eventually reach Kuwait. Human Rights organizations have several times issued reports demanding the release of Lawrence and the other two cases and no replies have been made by the Kuwaiti authorities. Latest local reports indicate that Lawrence tried to deny making the video. Several organizations and activists tried to reach him or his lawyer but nothing has been helpful.