Manama: Kuwait’s Court of Appeals on Thursday annulled a non-guilty verdict in a case involving Kuwaiti former lawmaker Abdul Hamid Dashti and ruled a 10-year sentence.
The verdict, reported by Kuwaiti news sites, takes the total of prison sentences stacked up against Dashti after he was convicted in several trials for insulting Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the judiciary in Kuwait to more than 40 years.
Dashti was acquitted in September in one case after the Criminal Court said that Article 4 of the State Security Law regarding acts of hostility could not be applied, arguing that the defendant expressed an opinion and did not carry out an action.
The former MP, a staunch supporter of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, has been out of Kuwait since March reportedly to receive medical treatment abroad.
His immunity was lifted by the parliament in March in connection with the state security cases in which he faced legal action for defaming Saudi Arabia.
On July 27, he was sentenced in absentia to 11 years and six months in prison with labour for insulting Saudi Arabia, criticising religion and insulting the judiciary and to three years for insulting Bahrain.
On September 22, he was sentenced to 14 years for his “abusive attacks.”
In October, he was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour for insulting Bahrain, and to three more years also with hard labour for his comments about Saudi Arabia.
Under Kuwait’s laws, individuals convicted of hostile act against a foreign country that may expose Kuwait to war or the severance of diplomatic relations are put on trial and may be sent to jail.
Dashti sought to run in the parliamentary elections on November 26 and submitted his application through his son.
However, the application was rejected as the election law does not allow proxy nominations and require the physical presence of the applicant.
A participation and a win in the elections would have afforded him a new parliamentary immunity that would have allowed him to go back home.
