Kuwait court jails 2 lawmakers over parliament protest

By Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar

KUWAIT CITY (AA) – Kuwait’s highest court on Sunday sentenced two lawmakers with three years and a half in prison over the 2011 storming of parliament.

The Court of Cassation also slapped five people with a three-and-a-half year jail term each and three others with a suspended two-year jail term each in the same case.

The court also acquitted 17 other defendants and upheld the acquittal for three others.

In November 2011, opposition MPs and their supporters broke into the parliament building to protest what they described as “deteriorating political conditions” in the Gulf country.

Sunday’s verdicts are final and cannot be appealed.

MP Juman al-Harbash, who was sentenced to three and a half in prison, said on Twitter "Thanks God for the safety of our young people..., we did our best not to cause any harm to our security men and the youth”.

In Dec. 2013, a criminal court acquitted all defendants in the case, but the verdict was challenged by the Kuwaiti prosecution office.

Last November, an appeal court slapped 68 Kuwaiti opposition activists, including 8 former MPs and two serving lawmakers, with different jail terms in the case.

But in February, the Court of Cassation overturned the ruling and ordered the release of the defendants.