WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it
had concerns about the case of a Kuwaiti blogger on trial for
allegedly insulting Kuwait's head of state and had raised the matter
with the Kuwaiti government.
Separately, the sister of blogger and journalist Mohammad
Abdul-Kader al-Jassem said the charges against him were political
and called for his release.
Al-Jassem, who faces up to 18 years in prison if convicted according
to his lawyers, was detained on May 11 after a complaint against him
was issued by the office of Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad
al-Sabah.
Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah
"We are concerned about this case and have raised our concerns with
the government of Kuwait," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J.
Crowley told Reuters.
"The ability of citizens and journalists of any country to freely
and vigorously discuss, debate and critique the actions of
governments does not threaten national interests," he added. "It ...
makes governments better and more accountable."
Al-Jassem is also accused of spreading false news that could harm
Kuwait's national interests.
His trial opened on May 24 and the court banned Kuwaiti media from
publishing reports about the case.
Kuwait, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, has the freest
press among Gulf Arab states but its ruler is protected from
criticism by the constitution. Many writers have been fined or
imprisoned for defamation.
"We demand his release and the dropping of all charges against him,"
his sister Sabiha Abdul-Kader al-Jassem told Reuters during a visit
to London. "The charges are all political because of his criticism
of the government."
She added: "What I want to say to the world is that Mohammad
Abdul-Kader al-Jassem is a lawyer and author ... and cannot in any
way break the law in anything he does or writes. He practiced his
right, the right we in Kuwait have been used to, freedom of
expression, freedom to write, freedom to publish."
Sabiha Abdul-Kader al-Jassem said she was dismayed at the lack of
tolerance of free speech in her country.
"We are astonished at what is happening because we grew up not
having these kinds of detentions ... we grew up with freedom of
expression," she said.
Sabiha Abdul-Kader al-Jassem, a retired planning official, said her
brother's criticism of the government on his website and in several
books was motivated by a love of his country, not designed to
campaign for a change of regime.
On his website, he criticized the ruling al-Sabah family and accused
Prime Minister Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah of mismanagement and
corruption.
In April, he was sentenced to six months in prison for defaming the
prime minister, but the court suspended the sentence pending an
appeal. Two other cases against him are being heard in courts.
The blogger went on a hunger strike in protest against his
detention, but health concerns forced him to end it. His sister said
he had open-heart surgery in 1992 and had undergone other cardiac
treatment since then.
(Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Additional reporting by London
newsroom; Editing by Will Dunham)
* * * * *
Makes you glad to live in a
country where, if your leader is an asshole, you can say so. That's
still true as far as I know, but I'm watching my back.
I believe I've met several
members of the al-Sabah ruling family of Kuwait. They were
class-mates in grad school in the late 70s in Austin. I remember
their air of "entitlement" to good grades without study, and I
remember when the air conditioning broke down that they all smelled
like goats.
Just remember:
"Every Dictatorship Starts With a Dick."
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