Daily Times

KUWAIT CITY: A Kuwait court has sentenced three members of the Al-Sabah ruling family, including the ruler’s nephew, and four others to jail terms for insulting top judges on the Internet.

According to a detailed verdict passed by the lower court on Monday, a copy of which was obtained by AFP on Tuesday, the ruling acquitted the men of the charge of insulting the Emir.

In Monday’s ruling, the court sentenced the three royals and two other people to five years each, a sixth man for one year and handed down a 10-year term to a seventh defendant in absentia.

The royals include Sheikh Athbi al-Fahad Al-Sabah, a nephew of the Gulf state’s Emir and the former head of the secret service police. He is also the younger brother of international sports figure Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad Al-Sabah, who is president of the Olympic Council of Asia and a member of the International Olympic Committee.

The defendants remain free on bail. They were among 13 people charged with using WhatsApp and Twitter to insult the judges and publish false news accusing them of accepting bribes.

The judges include the current and former chiefs of the supreme judicial council, the highest judicial authority in the oil-rich Gulf state.

Also convicted was Sheikh Khalifa Ali Al-Sabah, the editor of Al-Watan newspaper and television which were closed by the government for violating corporate finance rules in a decision ratified by the courts.

Another six men were acquitted. The rulings are not final as they can still be challenged in the appeals and supreme courts.