Kuwaiti writer gets 7 years for slandering religious minority on Twitter

Kuwaiti writer Mohammed Al-Mulaifi was sentenced to seven years of hard labor in prison yesterday for slander and defamation against the country's Shi'ite minority on his Twitter account. He said members of the country's Shi'ite Muslim minority were loyal to foreign countries due to their alleged foreign origin. He was also fined US$18,000.

Kuwait is split 70/30 between its Sunni and Shi'ite citizens. It has laws that forbid the maligning of either expression of Islam.

The Kuwait Times said, "Al-Mulaifi was accused of broadcasting untrue news on his Twitter blog about the existence of racial and sectarian division within the Kuwaiti community, and of accusing some citizens of affiliations to foreign countries. Al-Mulaifi was found guilty of undermining the Shiite doctrine and insulting Shiite scholars."

He was also charged for his accusations that Kuwaiti parliamentarian Ahmed Lari was of non-Kuwaiti origin and for slandering a Shi'ite religious figure, Imam Al-Mahdi.

The court's statement said he was convicted because he communicated "falsehoods about sectarian divisions" in Kuwait via Twitter and because he "insulted the Shiite faith and its scholars." His tweets, said the ruling, "damaged Kuwait's image."

Al-Mulaifi was arrested in February after Shi'ite Kuwaitis, including members of the government, vociferously protested his tweets.

Twitter is popular in Kuwait, as it is in the rest of the Gulf States. Kuwait is not alone in seeing a surprising number of its users get in trouble for their tweets, usually statements of a religious nature. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, Hamza Kashgari tweeted statements that inspired public anger, which was in turn fanned by internal political elements resentful of the liberalization of the country. Kashgari was intercepted in Malaysia after fleeing the kingdom in fear.

Not all Kuwaitis support the sentence. Kuwait Times reported that international lawyer and arbitrator Labeed Abdal is calling on the Kuwaiti Government to clarify the limit of the rights and freedom of expression.

"Interpretation must be thoroughly studied and properly identified," said Abdal, "In [Al-Mulaifi's] case, they are mixing it with personality and politics. Also, punishment must be adjusted to the crime committed."