Kuwait: A Kuwaiti court sentenced a prominent female human rights activist to three years in jail on charges of insulting the country’s ruler on Sunday, newspapers in the country reported.
“The Criminal Court today sentenced Rana Al Sadoun to three years with hard labour in the case of her repeating a speech by Musallam Al Barrak,” Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas said.
Her supporters online said she currently resides in Lebanon.
Musallam Al Barrak, a former member of parliament, this year began serving a two-year term for a 2012 speech criticising an election law which he and other opposition politicians said was intended to prevent them getting power.
While Kuwait allows more freedom of speech than some other Gulf Arab states, the country’s emir, Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, has the last say in state affairs.
Addressed to the Kuwaiti ruler, Al Barrak’s so-called “We will not allow you” speech has been read aloud as a symbol of solidarity by his supporters and rights activists, including Sadoun in a video uploaded online in 2013.
Sadoun is a founder of the National Committee for Monitoring Violations, an organisation which observes protests, publishes details of arrests and puts people in touch with lawyers.
In a video statement posted online in March, Sadoun said she did not intend to insult the emir or show support for Al Barrak.
“I didn’t repeat the speech because I agreed with what was said or who said it, but rather to support people’s right to express themselves,” she said.
A court last week sentenced 21 people, including nine former parliamentarians, to two-year suspended jail terms for repeating the speech.
Kuwait, a Western-allied oil exporter, avoided serious unrest during the 2011 Arab uprisings when some rulers in the region were overthrown, but citizens held large street protests in 2012 over changes to the electoral law.
The government had said it would strike with an “iron fist” against dissent.
