Kuwait court jails 68, including former, current MPs

By Mohamed Abdul Ghaffar

KUWAIT CITY

A Kuwaiti court on Monday slapped 68 opposition activists, including nine MPs (seven former and two current) to jail terms ranging from one to five years for storming Kuwait’s parliament building in 2011, according to judicial sources.

The defendants can still appeal the sentences before Kuwait’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest appellate court, sources told Anadolu Agency, speaking anonymously as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

In late 2013, a criminal court acquitted all the defendants in the case. Public prosecution authorities, however, later challenged the acquittal in a court of appeals.

The same appeals court later sentenced Walid al-Tabtabai and Jamaan al-Harbash -- two sitting MPs -- to five years in prison each.

Former MPs Musallam al-Barrak, Faisal al-Maslam, Mubarak al-Waalan, Khalid al-Tahoos, Salem al-Namlan and Fahd al-Khanna were all slapped with similar jail terms.

Another former MP, Mohamed al-Khalifa, meanwhile, was slapped with a year behind bars.

The lawmakers were convicted of “resisting security personnel” and “trespassing on [public] property with the intention of committing a crime”.

After the sentences were announced, al-Harbash tweeted: "It’s better to be in prison than to be a traitor or to be guilty of bribery."

In November 2011, the nine opposition MPs -- along with dozens of supporters -- stormed the parliament building in Kuwait City to protest what they described as the country’s “deteriorating political situation”.