Kuwaiti activist’s trial postponed to June 7
A Kuwaiti court on Monday postponed to June 7 the trial of Mohammad Al Jassem, the activist charged with insulting the emir, inciting the overthrow of government and spreading false news that could affect Kuwait’s national interests.
A request by his lawyer to grant him bail and allow him to go home on the grounds that he had a heart condition and that he was a public figure and a well-known lawyer was rejected by the court.
The activist, whose arrest has sparked a massive rally in Kuwait and calls for his release abroad, denied all the charges levelled against him and said that his trial was politically-motivated.
Al Jassem told the court that he needed protection after he was threatened by the officer who had accompanied him to the trial.
“He handcuffed and threatened me and I need to be protected from him,” Al Jassem told the judge, according to Kuwaiti news portal Al Aan.
The activist, who is reportedly suffering from heart problems, went on a hunger strike one day after he was summoned by the state security agency to answer the charges leveled against him. Appeals from his family and doctors eventually convinced him to end the strike.
Hundreds of Kuwaitis last week staged a rally in Kuwait City to demand Al Jassem’s release.
