Tunisia to close 80 mosques following terror attack

The Tunisian government has said it plans to shutter dozens of mosques. The move is a countermeasure to the extremist-inspired violence that left 39 people dead at a resort hotel in the city of Sousse.

Deutsche Welle, 27 June 2015

Tunisia's Prime Minister Habib Essid announced on Friday that the government will be shutting 80 mosques that are outside of state control on the grounds that they may incite violence. The plan, which will be carried out in the next week, follows an attack on a tourist resort hotel in the coastal city of Sousse, around 140 kilometers (87 miles) south of the capital Tunis.

Tunis also plans to crack down on financing for certain associations as a countermeasure against another attack.

The gunman had disguised himself as a tourist, hiding a rifle in an umbrella. He then opened fire on lounging tourists at the Imperial Marhaba hotel, killing 39 people including Britons, Germans and Belgians.

The attack was claimed by the jihadist group "Islamic State" (IS) who have been using social media to urge their followers to step-up violence against their enemies during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

"Our brother, the soldier of the Caliphate, Abu Yihya al-Kairouni, reached his target the Imperial hotel despite the security measures," said a statement on an IS-linked Twitter account. It continued that al-Kairouni had attacked what they called a brothel and killed 40 "infidels."

Three attacks in one day

The deaths in Sousse came on the same day as two other IS-linked attacks as 27 people were killed and more than 270 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive inside a Shiite mosque in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

Earlier in southeastern France, a truck driver named Yassine Salhi hung his employer's severed head along with banners carrying inscriptions in Arabic on a factory gate before crashing his vehicle into the chemical warehouse. Salhi triggered an explosion that left two workers wounded.

Although no group claimed responsibility for the France attack, the severed head mimicked IS's practice of beheading prisoners and displaying their heads.

Salhi was apprehended by the police shortly after the blast at the factory.

es/rc (AP, Reuters)

Arab leaders agree joint military force

Yahoo – AFP, Haitham El-Tabei, 29 March 2015

(Front from L-R) Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Kuwait Emir Sheikh 

Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Yemeni 

President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Sudanese President Omar al Bashir 

(middle-C) (AFP Photo/Mohamed Samaaha)

Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) (AFP) - Arab leaders agreed on Sunday to form a joint military force after a summit dominated by a Saudi-led offensive on Shiite rebels in Yemen and the threat from Islamist extremism.

Arab representatives will meet over the next month to study the creation of the force and present their findings to defence ministers within four months, according to the resolution adopted by the leaders.

"Assuming the great responsibility imposed by the great challenges facing our Arab nation and threatening its capabilities, the Arab leaders had decided to agree on the principle of a joint Arab military force," Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told the summit in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The decision was mostly aimed at fighting jihadists who have overrun swathes of Iraq and Syria and secured a foothold in Libya, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said ahead of the summit.

On Sunday, Arabi told the meeting the region was threatened by a "destructive" force that threatened "ethnic and religious diversity", in an apparent reference to the Islamic State group.

"What is important is that today there is an important decision, in light of the tumult afflicting the Arab world," he said.

Egypt had pushed for the creation of the rapid response force to fight militants, and the matter gained urgency this week after Saudi Arabia and Arab allies launched air strikes on Huthi rebels in Yemen.

A handout picture made available by the Egyptian presidency shows Egyptian

 President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (C) speaking during a closed session with Arab

 leaders during the Arab League summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm 

El-Sheikh on March 28, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Arabi, reading a statement at the conclusion of the summit, said on Sunday the offensive would continue until the Huthis withdraw from regions they have overrun and surrender their weapons.

Several Arab states including Egypt are taking part in the military campaign, which Saudi King Salman said on Saturday would continue until the Yemeni people "enjoy security".

'Months to create'

Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi at the start of the summit called for the offensive to end only when the Huthis "surrender", calling the rebel leader an Iranian "puppet".

However, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the leaders to find a peaceful resolution in Yemen.

"It is my fervent hope that at this Arab League summit, leaders will lay down clear guidelines to peacefully resolve the crisis in Yemen," he said.

James Dorsey, a Middle East analyst with the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that despite support for a joint-Arab force, "it would still take months to create and then operate on an ad-hoc basis.

"I don't think we will get an integrated command anytime soon, as no Arab leader would cede control of any part of their army anytime soon," he said.

"Today we will have a formal declaration that would be negotiated every time during action."

Sisi said in a recent interview that the proposal for a joint force was welcomed especially by Jordan, which might take part alongside Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri, spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition

 forces, speaks to the media next to a replica of a Tornado fighter jet (AFP

Photo/Fayez Nureldine)

Aaron Reese, deputy research director at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said "each of these countries would bring a different capability.

"The Jordanians are well known for their special forces capability... the Egyptians of course have the most manpower and bases close to Libya."

Before Egyptian air strikes in February targeting the IS in Libya, the United Arab Emirates, which shares Cairo's antipathy towards Islamists, had reportedly used Egyptian bases to launch its own air strikes there.

Cairo had sought UN backing for intervention in Libya, dismissing attempted peace talks between the rival governments in its violence-plagued North African neighbour as ineffective.

Asean peacekeeping force (JG Graphics/Josep Tri Ronggo)

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Pakistan prepares for Saudi royal to hunt 'protected' birds

Yahoo – AFP, 2 Feb 2015

A falcon (R) tries to catch a Houbara bustard during a falconry competition,

 part of the 2014 International Festival of Falconry, in Hameem, 150km west of

 Abu Dhabi, on December 9, 2014 (AFP Photo/Karim Sahib)

Quetta (Pakistan) (AFP) - Pakistani authorities are finalising arrangements for a Saudi prince to visit its southwestern desert region to hunt the Houbara bustard, a bird supposedly protected by law, officials said Monday.

An advance party has already been reached the Yak Much desert in the province of Baluchistan along with falcons which will be used to catch the bustard, officials said.

Saudi Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz is expected to join the group in coming days. He led a hunting party to Baluchistan last year that officials said killed more than 2,000 bustards.

The birds are listed as "vulnerable" and declining in numbers by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "Red List" of threatened species. Hunting them is banned in Pakistan.

But authorities issue special permits to wealthy visitors from Arab countries. Permit holders are in theory restricted to hunting a maximum of 100 of the protected birds over 10 days, but only in certain areas.

A Houbara bustard flies during a falconry competition -- part of the 2014

 International Festival of Falconry -- in Hameem, 150km west of Abu Dhabi,

on December 9, 2014 (AFP Photo/Karim Sahib)

Saifullah Zehri, district forest officer for wildlife in Chagai district of which Yak Much is a part, told AFP the advance party arrived on Sunday in a C-130 transport plane.

"They were fully equipped and had all the material which is required for bird hunting," Zehri said.

Arab sheikhs are known as enthusiastic hunters, travelling to Pakistan each year to hunt the bird using the traditional Arabian method. They arrive by private jets from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

According to conservative estimates, between 500,000 and a million birds of all species migrate through Pakistan each year -- flying south from Siberia to pass the winter in Central and South Asia.

Hunt: Fahd bin Sultan is said to have killed

1,977 houbara bustards in just 21 days while

on holiday

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Arab states offer to help attack Isis, diplomats say

Countries believed to include the UAE and Saudi Arabia are prepared to fight Islamic State in major boost to the US

theguardian.com, Ian Black and Martin Chulov, Sunday 14 September 2014

John Kerry said the US had Arab allies who were prepared to join in strikes
on Isis. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AP

Several Arab states, believed to include the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have offered to help attack Islamic State (Isis) targets in Syria and Iraq, in a major boost for US efforts to build a broad coalition against the Sunni insurgent group.

The offers, reported by senior western diplomats, came in the wake of widespread international condemnation of the murder of the British hostage, David Haines, and a pledge by Australia to help the military effort. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said on Sunday he was "extremely encouraged" by pledges made so far. Kerry is to join Iraqi, Arab and other western ministers at a conference in Paris on Monday to agree ways to support the new Baghdad government in the war against the jihadi group. Arab participation in military action would help give a wider sense of legitimacy to the campaign.

US officials declined to say which countries had offered help, but one appeared to be the UAE, whose aircraft recently bombed Islamist militia targets in Libya from bases in Egypt.

A senior western source told the Guardian that Saudi Arabia felt so threatened by Isis that it was prepared to act in a frontline role. "There is a very real possibility that we could have the Saudi air force bombing targets inside Syria. That is a remarkable development, and something the US would be very pleased to see."

Another senior official said that Saudi Arabia was now far more willing to play an open role in the campaign against Isis than during the 1991 Gulf war and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In both previous campaigns, Riyadh allowed its military bases to be used by US forces, but did not commit its own troops or airmen.

This time, Riyadh sees Isis as a direct threat to Saudi Arabia. "They actually see themselves as the real target. "They know that they have to step up, and they are ready to, from what we can see," the official said.

A US official told the New York Times that the US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, had received offers from several Arab states. "There have been offers both to Centcom and to the Iraqis of Arab countries taking more aggressive kinetic action."

France has indicated that it will back US air strikes against Isis after its president, François Hollande, expressed support for the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, and moves to undercut Sunni support for Isis. But Turkey, which borders on both Iraq and Syria, has quietly made clear that it would not take part or allow its bases to be used for combat operations – a disappointment coming from Nato's only Muslim member.

Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Photograph: AP

Syrian ministers have repeated calls for Damascus to join the coalition, though the US and Britain – backed by their Gulf allies – have insisted president Bashar al-Assad cannot take part because he has "lost all legitimacy" in the course of a war that has cost 200,000 lives.

Kerry said the US would not coordinate any attacks with Syria, but added in an interview on CBS's Face the Nation: "We will certainly want to deconflict and make certain that they're (Syria) not about to do something that they might regret even more seriously."

Britain will be represented at the Paris talks by Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, with David Cameron facing conflicting pressures over whether to participate in air strikes or restrict the country to delivering humanitarian aid, surveillance, and arming and training Kurdish and Iraqi forces. Cameron made clear on Sunday that he supports US strikes and "whatever steps are necessary" while keeping options open. The Haines murder may change the dynamic of the arguments.

Details of how the anti-Isis campaign will be waged are still sketchy, though the US reportedly discussed basing and overflight rights at talks in Jeddah last week with the Saudis and the other Gulf states as well as Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. All expressed support for a "coordinated military campaign".

"I can tell you right here and now that we have countries in this region, countries outside of this region, in addition to the United States, all of whom are prepared to engage in military assistance, in actual strikes if that is what it requires," Kerry said.

Officials familiar with high level discussions between Riyadh and Washington say both sides are determined to avoid the perception in the Sunni world that the upcoming campaign will benefit Iran and its Shia and Alawite proxies. "The Saudis are the power base of the Sunni world and it is time for them to provide an alternative to Isis," said a regional official. "They know what is expected of them and this time you will see them acting directly."

Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said that while air strikes would weaken Isis, "it's going to be Iraqi and other boots on the ground" that would the key to defeating the terrorists.

"To destroy Isil[Isis] we need to have a force, an anvil against which they will be pushed," McDonough said on CNN's State of the Union.

"It will be a coalition that includes not only our friends in Europe and Asia but also our partners in the region, Muslim states, Sunni states. We're going to use our unique capabilities, air power, ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] and our training ability to make sure Iraqi forces on one side and Syrian opposition forces on the other side of the border can take the fight to Isil."

Obama's condemnation of Haines's murder was echoed in other capitals, with the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, calling the killing "an abhorrent act of barbaric violence beyond all limits of human civilisation."

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With US ties frayed, Saudi calls for Gulf union

Google – AFP, Acil Tabbara (AFP), 9 December 2013

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) speaks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince

 Saud al-Faisal during a joint press conference on November 4, 2013 in Riyadh (AFP/

File, Fayez Nureldine)

Manama — With its decades-old US alliance strained over the Syria war and a nuclear deal with Iran, Saudi Arabia is calling on the Gulf monarchies to unite for their own self-defence.

US Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel has assured Gulf states that the agreement struck between major powers and Iran on November 24 will not affect the presence of some 35,000 US troops in the region.

But in a speech at the Manama Dialogue security forum in Bahrain, Saudi Assistant Foreign Minister Nizar Madani said "Gulf countries should no longer depend on others to ensure their safety."

The oil-rich monarchies "must unite under one political entity in order to face internal and external challenges," said the minister.

Riyadh has called for an enhanced union with fellow Gulf Cooperation Council states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which together account for 40 percent of the world's oil reserves and a quarter of its natural gas.

Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief

Prince Turki Al Faisal attends the 9th IISS

regional security summit in the Bahraini

capital Manama on December 8, 2013 

(AFP/File, Mohammed al-Shaikh)

"All countries have realised that blind dependence on a foreign power is no longer acceptable. GCC countries must decide their own futures," said Madani.

Saudi Arabia, long wary of Tehran's regional ambitions, has reacted cautiously to the nuclear deal reached in Geneva, saying it could mark the first step towards a comprehensive solution for Iran's nuclear programme "if there are good intentions."

The interim deal would curb Iran's controversial nuclear activities in exchange for some sanctions relief, and is aimed at buying time for negotiating a comprehensive accord.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal suggested that the GCC states join the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany.

Western nations have long suspected Iran of covertly pursuing nuclear weapons alongside its uranium enrichment programme -- charges denied by Tehran -- and the United States has not ruled out military action to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Faisal stressed that the Sunni-dominated monarchies would immediately be affected by any regional military conflict or radiation leak, while accusing Shiite Iran of duplicity in its relations with its Arab neighbours.

"Iran addresses us with broad smiles, while at the same time their man in Lebanon accuses Saudi Arabia," Faisal said in reference to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who blamed the kingdom for a twin suicide attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut last month, which killed 25 people.

Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, and the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militias are battling alongside his forces against the Sunni-led rebels, who are supported by Riyadh.

US accused of failing Syria rebels

Saudi Arabia has accused the United States of turning a blind eye to the bloodshed in Syria, which has killed an estimated 126,000 people since March 2011.

"The world sits as a spectator in front of the massacres against the Syrian people," said Faisal, the influential Saudi royal who served in the past as ambassador in Britain and the United States.

It is "necessary to provide the reasonable Syrian opposition with means to defend themselves," which the "United States does not do," he said.

"The Saudis blame the United States for imposing a veto on any delivery of heavy weapons or anti-aircraft batteries to the Syrian opposition, allowing the regime to maintain an upper hand using its airforce," a Syrian opposition member said.

Saudi Arabia did not hide its anger after US President Barack Obama stepped back from punitive strikes against Syria over a chemical attack in August on a rebel-held district near Damascus.

But for Faisal, the US-Saudi alliance, which dates back to a meeting aboard the USS Quincy in the Suez Canal in 1945 between the kingdom's founder King Ibn Saud and US president Franklin Roosevelt, "is not over."

Both leaders had at the time agreed that Washington would help secure the kingdom in exchange for oil, but circumstances have changed, with the United States expected to become the world's top oil producer in 2015.

"We had our differences in the past," Faisal told AFP. "And today we have differences on certain issues, but we agree on others."

Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah speaks at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in

Kuwait.  (REUTERS/Stringer)

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UAE leader accepts invitation to visit Iran
Iran reaches out to rivals in Gulf monarchies

This image released by the Emirates News Agency, WAM, shows UAE president
 Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, right, meeting with the Iranian foreign minister,
 Mohammad Javad Zarif in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013.
(AP Photo/WAM)

.

Iran reaches out to rivals in Gulf monarchies

Foreign minister Mohammad Zarif has travelled to four Gulf states since his triumph at nuclear talks in Geneva

The Telegraph, Richard Spencer,Middle East Correspondent, 02 Dec 2013

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Photo: AFP

Fresh from his triumphant return from the nuclear agreement in Geneva, Iran's media-friendly foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, is making dramatic overtures for better relations with some of its fiercest enemies, the Sunni-led monarchies of the Gulf states.

Mr Zarif visited three of the six Gulf monarchies, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, on Sunday and Monday, fresh from meeting his opposite number from a fourth, the United Arab Emirates, in Tehran last week. The tour came ahead of the next stage in Iran's wider diplomatic rehabilitation today when Britain's newly-appointed charge d'affaires, Ajay Sharma, will visit Tehran to meet his opposite number, Hassan Habibollah-Zadeh.

The Iranian foreign minister called for better ties with Saudi Arabia, Iran's leading rival for influence in the Middle East and the de facto leader of the Sunni Muslim world. "I believe that our relations with Saudi Arabia should expand as we consider Saudi Arabia as an extremely important country in the region and the Islamic world," he told reporters.

"We believe that Iran and Saudi Arabia should work together in order to promote peace and stability in the region."

He also expressed a hope that he would be able to visit Riyadh - though this is an invitation the Saudis, who are especially distrustful of Iran's new "moderate" face and of the Iranian nuclear deal in particular, seems in no hurry to make.

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Saudi Arabia, like Israel, is still smarting over Iran's new international diplomatic acceptance. Both believe that Iran is being duplicitous over its promises to downgrade its nuclear programme and that in any case it has no intention of pulling back from its "interventionist" policies across the Middle East.

For Israel that means its backing for Islamist groups in Gaza, and Hizbollah. For Saudi Arabia, that means its promotion of Shia causes across the region, and in particular the decision to use its Revolutionary Guard and Iran-supported militias like Hizbollah to defend President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

"If they really want good relations with Saudi Arabia this is a very important issue for the Gulf Co-operation Council," said Mustafa Alani, of the Gulf Research Centre, which is close to Riyadh. The GCC comprises the six Gulf monarchies.

The British envoy, meanwhile, is expected to also make a visit to "British diplomatic facilities", Mr Habibollah-Zadeh said, presumably the British embassy, whose ransacking by a mob of student protesters two years ago led to London breaking off diplomatic relations.

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"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore. "Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”

Saudi bans 'terrorist' propaganda on Internet

Google – AFP, 9 Sep 2013

Saudi internet surfers check their twitter accounts at a coffee shop in

Riyadh on February 9, 2012 (AFP/File, Fayez Nureldine)

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia said Monday it will outlaw the dissemination of information on the Internet for the benefit of "terrorist" groups, in line with a decision taken by Gulf Arab monarchies.

The official SPA news agency said the cabinet approved the "unified legislation against cybercrime," which the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) adopted in December.

The legislation targets those who "create sites and publish information on the Internet or a computer network for the benefit of a terrorist group to enable contacts among its leaders or its members, to promote its views or funding," said the agency.

It also prohibits "the dissemination of ideas that could affect public order or morality," said SPA, without providing further details.

Most members of the six-nation GCC -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- have tightened their laws against cybercrime in recent years.

Kuwait cabinet calls snap election on 25 July

BBC News, 20 June 2013

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Changes to Kuwait's election law led
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Kuwait's government has said snap general elections will be held on 25 July, following the dissolution of the parliament by the country's top court.

The decision was approved at an emergency meeting of the cabinet.

The Constitutional Court last week scrapped the parliament on procedural grounds and also threw out opposition challenges to the electoral system.

The opposition had boycotted general elections in December in protest at the rules decreed by the emir.

It was the secondtime in a year that the court has ordered the dissolution of parliament in the oil-rich Gulf state.

Last June it scrapped an opposition-dominated parliament, saying there had been flaws in the process that led to its election.

Mass protests

"At an extraordinary meeting... the cabinet approved a draft decree setting 25 July as the date for parliamentary elections," Cabinet Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Mubarak al-Sabah told Kuwait's state-run Kuna news agency on Thursday.

The decree will now be officially issued by Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah.

The snap elections were widely expected, following the Constitutional Court ruling.

The court also upheld new voting rules that allowed each voter to choose just one candidate at the ballot box - down from four previously.

The changes were decreed six weeks before December's poll, and led to mass protests.

Opponents had argued that the reform was designed to weaken the opposition.

The government says the new system has brought Kuwait into line with other countries.

Kuwait's parliament has lawmaking powers and can hold government ministers to account.

However, the emir has the final say in matters of state. He also chooses the prime minister, who in turn picks a cabinet, with members of the ruling al-Sabah family occupying the top posts.

Kuwaiti woman jailed for 'insulting' emir tweets

BBC News, 10 June 2013

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Kuwait has punished several Twitter users in recent
months for insulting Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah

A Kuwaiti court has sentenced a woman to 11 years in jail for insulting the emir and calling for regime change on social networking site Twitter.

Huda al-Ajmi, a 37-year-old teacher, has been also convicted of misusing her mobile phone.

She can appeal against the sentence.

Kuwait has punished several Twitter users in recent months for insulting its ruler, Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah, who is described as "immune and inviolable" in the constitution.

In May, an appeals court overturned a five-year sentence for prominent opposition figure Mussallam al-Barrak who was convicted of "undermining" the ruling emir, says his defence lawyer.

The former MP was arrested over remarks he made at a rally in October, urging the emir to avoid "autocratic" rule in Kuwait. Mr Barrak was handed the sentence in April, but later freed on bail.

His trial prompted angry protests and clashes between activists and police.

There has been a recent clampdown in Kuwait, with activists and MPs being charged with insulting the emir through comments posted on social networking sites such as Twitter.

While Kuwait has not seen the same scale of pro-democracy uprisings as in other Arab states, there has been growing tension between former MPs and the government, which is dominated by the Sabah family.

Kuwait jails tweeter 5 years for emir insult

The Daily Star, February 03, 2013

The Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah speaks during
 the opening ceremony of the International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for
Syria at Bayan palace in Kuwait City on January 30, 2013. AFP PHOTO/STR

                             

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait's lower court on Sunday sentenced an opposition youth activist to five years in jail "with immediate effect" for insulting the emir on Twitter, a rights group said.

"The court passed the maximum jail term against Mohammad Eid al-Ajmi for insulting the emir on Twitter," the director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad al-Humaidi, told AFP.

The ruling is not final as it will be appealed, but Ajmi will begin serving the sentence immediately, Humaidi said.

Ajmi is the third opposition youth activist to be convicted for insulting the emir on Twitter. Last month the same court sentenced two tweeters to two years each in jail each on the same charge.

Ayyad al-Harbi and Rashed al-Enezi are both in prison as they await appeals court rulings on their cases.

Humaidi said a large number of youth activists are on trial on similar charges, with verdicts expected in the coming weeks.

The criminal court is also scheduled to issue its verdict on Tuesday against three former opposition MPs for criticising the emir at a public rally on October 10.

Criticising the emir is illegal in Kuwait and is considered a state security charge. Those convicted of the offence face up to five years in jail.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last month Washington had already raised with Kuwait its concern about such sentences.

The opposition has been staging regular demonstrations in protest at an amendment of the electoral law and the subsequent holding of a parliamentary election on December 1 on the basis of the amended legislation.

The opposition held a public rally late Saturday to express solidarity with Twitter users and former MPs on trial for expressing their opinion.

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