Kuwaiti tweeter gets jailed for allegedly insulting Shiites

A tweeter was sentenced to 21 days' detention in Kuwait, pending an investigation of charges he allegedly insulted the faith of the Shiite minority.

 

Lebanon's The Daily Star reported that Mohammad al-Mulaifi was questioned by a prosecutor who ordered Sunday his detention for three weeks.

 

The report said the Kuwaiti secret service summoned Mulaifi Feb. 11 after he posted on his Twitter account material deemed offensive to Shiites.

 

But Mulaifi, an employee of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and a writer, denied the charges and insisted that he did not mean to insult any faith, his lawyer Yacoub Bahbood said.

 

The lawyer said he will appeal again for the public prosecutor to release his client, who is a widower and has four children.

 

According to Bahbood, Mulaifi was questioned on charges of disparaging the Shiite faith and promoting for a group that aims at dismantling the foundations of the society and spreading false news that undermines the image of Kuwait.

 

Before Mulaifi's questioning, Kuwaiti Shiites staged a rally in protest against the article and demanded that authorities take action.

 

Kuwaiti Shiites make up around a third of the native population of 1.17 million, the report said.

 

The report said sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shiites had increased in the past several months, reflecting regional tension over Bahrain and Syria.

 

In September, Kuwaiti courts sentenced a Sunni and a Shiite activist to three months in jail each for writing sectarian remarks on their Twitter accounts. — TJD, GMA News