Kuwait high court sentences former MPs to prison

Kuwait’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest judicial body in the country, has issued a four-year prison sentence against former MP Walid Al-Tabtabaei, over challenging the Emir’s powers, Kuwaiti media reported.

According to media reports, the court found Al-Tabtabaei guilty of insulting the Emir, Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, in social media posts, over his decision last year to suspend certain articles of the constitution, dissolve the National Assembly, and suspend it indefinitely.

Al-Tabtabaei has denied making the posts to X, formerly Twitter. However, the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal filed by the Islamist MP and overturned the previous Court of Appeal ruling, which had commuted the sentence to two years, and upheld the first instance court’s four-year prison sentence.

In the same context, the Court of Cassation also sentenced former MPs Anwar Al-Fikr to three years in prison, and Hamad Al-Olayan and Hussein Al-Qallaf to two years in prison, also on charges related to challenging the Emir’s rights and powers.

In February, 2024, Kuwait Emir Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah ordered the dissolution of the National Assembly based on Article 107 of the Constitution, over “violations of constitutional norms” by some MPs.

He also suspended certain articles of the Constitution for a maximum period of four years, with the formation of a committee to review the Constitution.

The decision came after repeated crises between the government and the National Assembly, including the suspension of Assembly sessions and some MPs refusal to take the constitutional oath before the Emir.

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