As part of the Kuwaiti authorities’ continued repressive policies that they have pursued since dissolving the National Assembly in May 2024, the Criminal Court sentenced online activist Mansoor Al-Muhareb to two years in prison in absentia.
On 27 October 2024, the Criminal Court issued a ruling in absentia against Al-Muhareb, who lives abroad, sentencing him to two years in prison with hard labour in a complaint classified as a state security case, in which he was convicted of challenging the powers of the Emir of the country.
Al-Muhareb uses his account on the X website, which has a header saying “Kuwait is not for sale,” to express his personal opinions on daily issues that concern citizens, including the repressive policies pursued by the authorities in targeting civil society activists and bloggers.
Upon the verdict against him, he tweeted, “Commenting on the two-year prison sentence against me for stating that the dissolution of the National Assembly was unconstitutional: Where are the articles that allow the suspension of the Constitution or some of its articles in normal circumstances without a state of emergency and for a limited period? Do the State Security Law and its articles, which the dissolution appears to have been based on, take precedence over the articles of the Constitution?”
On 01 November 2024, he tweeted, “The fate of Kuwait’s honourable people and loyal sons is either imprisonment or displacement.” He then added the hashtag: #Freedom_for_all_political_detainees_and_political_displaced_persons
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) strongly condemns the two-year prison sentence issued against blogger Mansoor Al-Muhareb, which is solely related to his legitimate right to freedom of expression on the Internet, which is guaranteed by the Kuwaiti Constitution, and calls for this unjust verdict to be overturned and all false and fabricated charges against him to be dropped.
GCHR calls on the competent authorities in Britain, where he currently resides, to provide him with full protection and grant him full political asylum as soon as possible.
