State Security Court issues verdicts in five social media cases
Prison terms handed down in cases involving alleged insults, false news and sectarian incitement; one acquitted on 5,000 dinars bail and pledge of good conduct
Kuwait’s State Security and Terrorism Crimes Court has issued verdicts in five cases involving social media activity, handing down prison sentences in four cases while acquitting a lawyer in another and imposing a two-year good-conduct undertaking. In the first case, the court sentenced Talal Al-Dabbous to five years in prison with hard labour after convicting him of insulting the H.H. the Amir through social media.
In a second case, the court sentenced Luluah Al-Hussainan and Mansour Al-Muharib to five years in prison with hard labour for spreading, what the case described as, false news through social media. The court also ordered the destruction of the video cited in the case. In the third case, a lawyer who appeared and made statements on a television programme, the court acquitted him and refrained from imposing a sentence, subject to his signing a two-year good-conduct undertaking and released him on 5,000 dinars bail.
The court also sentenced a social media user to three years in prison with hard labour after convicting him of inciting sectarian strife through social media. In the fifth case, two X users were sentenced in connection with posts concerning a member of the ruling family. The first received two years in prison with hard labour for publishing the post, while the second was sentenced to five years with hard labour for responding to it.
The verdicts cover a range of social media-related offences, including alleged insults, dissemination of false information and incitement to sectarian conflict. The cases highlight the criminal penalties that can follow from social media activity when authorities determine that posts or statements violate Kuwait’s laws.
