Kuwaiti jailed 4 years over Saudi insult tweets

Kuwait City: Kuwait’s lower court on Monday sentenced an activist to four years in jail for posting comments on Twitter deemed offensive to neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The court convicted Hamed Buyabes, a Kuwaiti, of “insulting a brotherly country and endangering diplomatic ties with it” a year ago, the verdict said.

The former columnist confirmed the sentence on Twitter, saying he had only been defending the interests of his country during a row with Riyadh over a border port.

The sentence is not final as it can be challenged before the appeals and supreme courts.

In the past few months, Kuwaiti courts have sentenced activists for writing comments on social media deemed offensive to a number of Arab countries.