Kuwait sentences politicians to prison over 2011 protests

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s highest court ordered an opposition leader and several politicians imprisoned for 3½ years yesterday over the 2011 storming of parliament during the country’s Arab Spring protests.

The case before Kuwait’s Court of Cassation involved dozens of politicians, activists and others.

The defendants were initially acquitted in the years-long case, but a shock court decision in November resurrected the charges against them.

Among those sentenced yesterday was Musallam al-Barrack, an opposition leader who left prison in April 2017 after serving a two-year sentence on separate charges.

Sitting and former politicians also were sentenced to prison.

The case involved a total of 70 defendants.

Al-Barrack had left Kuwait before the sentencing. He could not be immediately reached for comment.

As Arab Spring protests convulsed the region in 2011, Kuwait’s ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, ordered large grants and free food coupons for every Kuwaiti.

That came on top of Kuwait’s cradle-to-grave entitlements for its citizens, which the Opec member is able to afford because it holds the world’s sixth-largest known oil reserves – despite being smaller than the US state of New Jersey.

Allegations swirled at the time that some politicians had been bribed by the government to sway their votes, along with rumours that they were involved in embezzling state funds.