Kuwaiti liberal group leader sentenced to three months for slandering prime minister
Al Fadhala and the Prime Minister - Al Aan
Khalid Al Fadhala, the secretary general of the Kuwait Democratic National Alliance, was on Wednesday sentenced to three months in jail for slandering the prime minister.
Kuwait’s lower court also ruled that Al Fadhalah pay a KD 150 fine for accusing the prime minister Shaikh Nasser Mohammad Al Ahmad Al Sabah of involvement in money laundering. The civil case against Al Fadhala will be reviewed on July 9, the court said.
The prime minister had sued Al Fadhala for slandering him at a public rally in November at a public square in Kuwait City.
Imad Al Seefi, the lawyer for the prime minister, told the court that political activism should not be used to launch accusations and slander people.
“Such an attitude reflects a misinterpretation of the freedom of political activism and the right to criticize other people,” he said. “The dignity of national icons should not be undermined by slandering them or intruding on their private lives. Everybody has the right to go to court to preserve their freedoms, private lives and dignity, and this applies to all common people and politicians,” he said.
The verdict was, expectedly, supported and criticised by bloggers who were divided on its merit.
Several people welcomed it as “a means to ensure that freedom of expression is not turned into abuse of people’s names and dignity”, but others said that it was “a move against people’s rights to express their views and opinions.”
A group of 56 activists, lawyers and writers issued a petition prior to the ruling to express solidarity with Al Fadhala and to urge Kuwaiti officials to deepen democratic practices by not taking political statements out of their contexts.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is a liberal political bloc with two members in the 50-seat parliament. It is often criticized by conservatives, but enjoys support among young liberal Kuwaitis. The NDA supports co-education, the desegregation of school institutions and granting women their political rights and calls for uniting Kuwaiti citizens under a national umbrella rather than dividing them into sects and tribes.
