Former Kuwait MP Musallam Al Barrak’s retrial set for June 9

Kuwait City: Kuwait’s appeals court on Monday quashed a five-year jail term given to opposition leader and former MP Musallam Al Barrak last month for allegedly insulting the emir and ordered a retrial, a defence lawyer said.

“The [appeals] court declared the lower court verdict against Al Barrak illegal and cancelled it. It also agreed to call witnesses in the next hearing,” Mohammad Abdul Qader Al Jasem said.

The appeals court has said it will retry the case at a hearing set for June 9, Al Jasem added. Under Kuwait’s legal system, Al Barrak could still receive another sentence.

The lower court handed Al Barrak the sentence on April 18 even after the defence team walked out of the trial when the judge refused to summon a number of dignitaries as witnesses.

Al Jasem said the defence lawyers have demanded that the court summon Prime Minister Shaikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, as a witness in the case.

However, he said it was still unclear whether the appeals court will include the premier as a witness.

Al Barrak, a nationalist former MP, was sentenced to jail over remarks he made at a public rally on October 15 deemed offensive to the emir, Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah.

The jail sentence sparked angry protests by opposition activists that turned into clashes with police which used tear gas and stun grenades, wounding several protesters in the process.

Kuwait has clamped down on activists and tweeters, with courts handing out sentences of up to 10 years in jail to those charged with insulting the emir.

The oil-rich Gulf country has been rocked by a bitter political crisis in recent months after the emir amended the electoral law in a move the opposition claims was unconstitutional.