Kuwaiti member of parliament jailed for two years
The final ruling hampers the lawmaker from doing parliamentary duties, experts say
Cairo: A top Kuwaiti court had sentenced a recently elected lawmaker to two years in prison in an unprecedented ruling for a sitting parliamentarian in the country, Kuwaiti media reported.
The court handed down the two-year jail term to MP Marzouk Al Khalifa and 28 other defendants in the same case on charges of unlawfully organising an informal tribal election in 2020.
Al Khalifa has been in prison since late August and vied in early parliamentary election held in Kuwait on September 29. He was among 50 winners in the polls.
The Court of Cassation Monday upheld the jailing rulings issued in the case last March by the appeals court.
With the verdict being final, Al Khalifa will not be able to exercise his parliamentary duties until he gets a pardon from the country’s emir, Al Anba newspaper quoted legal experts as saying.
It was the first time in Kuwait that a candidate stood for parliament, won and got a final custodial sentence while in prison, the paper said.
Kuwait’s new parliament is due told its opening session on October 18.