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KUWAIT: SHI'ITE MUSLIM GETS 10 YEARS FOR TWITTER BLASPHEMY
June 4, 2012: Hamad al-Naqi, the Kuwaiti Shiite tweeter arrested in March for allegedly cursing the Prophet Mohammed on social media, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Kuwait after being convicted of endangering state security.
The written verdict, delivered by Judge Hisham Abdullah, found him guilty of insulting the Prophet, the Prophet's wife and companions, mocking Islam, provoking sectarian tensions, insulting the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and misusing his mobile phone to spread the comments.
The sentence was the maximum that 26-year-old Naqi could have received, his lawyer Khaled al-Shatti said. "The prison sentence is long but we have the chance to appeal," Shatti said.
The civil plaintiff arguing the case against Naqi, as well as some Kuwaiti politicians, had called for Naqi to be put to death in a high-profile and divisive case that has stoked sectarian tensions in the Gulf state.
Shatti had argued that even if his client had written the remarks, he would be guilty of a "crime of opinion", not of threatening national security.
The civil plaintiff, Dowaem al-Mowazry, has argued that Naqi must be made an example of, which was why the death penalty was appropriate.
Hamad al-Naqi pleaded innocent at the start of the trial last month, saying he did not post the messages and that his Twitter account had been hacked. Naqi did not appear in court on Monday. He was in the central prison where he has been held since his arrest in March, the court secretary said. (Sources: Reuters, 04/06/2012)
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