Expression
Informed local sources confirmed to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) that, on 21st February 2024, the prominent defender of the rights of the Bedoon community, Mohammed Al-Barghash, surrendered himself to the authorities, who transferred him to the Central Prison, where he is currently detained. In addition, at dawn on 8th February 2024, eight members of the General Department of Criminal Investigation raided Al-Barghash’s house and investigated his wife, who holds Iraqi citizenship, in front of her three children. They then arrested her on the grounds that her residency in the country had expired. She was later released from Abdullah Al-Mubarak Police Station.
On 31st January 2024, the Court of Appeal issued its ruling against Al-Barghash after his retrial. He was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour after being convicted of fabricated charges namely, spreading fake news, harming the state’s reputation and misusing a telephone device.
The Court of First Instance had decided, in its hearing held on 27th October 2023, to acquit him of all the alleged charges brought against him. He was then released after 55 days of detention in the Central Prison, during which time he was blindfolded, handcuffed and taken to the State Security Apparatus, where he was interrogated by six officers who put psychological pressure on him and threatened him with torture. This led to the deterioration of his health and his transfer to hospital.
On 23rd January 2024, the State Security Criminal Court sentenced blogger Salman Al-Khalidi to three years in prison with labour. The ruling was issued after he was convicted of “insulting publicly and in a public place by writing about the head of the state, and intentional misuse of cell phone in writing and publishing.”
Informed local sources confirmed that the State Security Apparatus is working to intimidate and harass Al-Khalidi by bringing new cases against him based on the same charges but related to other social media posts.
The trial took place in absentia, and the court, as was the case in previous trials, did not allow him to appoint a lawyer. He was requested to attend in person, which would have exposed him to clear and imminent danger.
The two charges for which he was convicted are similar to those he faced in previous cases, when the State Security Criminal Court sentenced him on 26th September 2023 to a period of three years’ imprisonment; and issued a subsequent ruling on 19th November 2023, with an effective five-year prison term.
These sentences are all linked to alleged charges relating to his peaceful use of his account on X (formerly Twitter) to express his personal opinion on public issues of concern to citizens in Kuwait, and his defence of the civil and humanitarian rights of the Bedoon community, as well as of prisoners of conscience, in addition to his work as a founding member of the Kuwaiti Refugee Association.