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The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) reported that prominent human rights defender Anwar Al-Rasheed was arrested by security forces for a tweet he posted on 26th August 2024. He wrote, “It is said, and God knows best, that a ruler wanted to form a government, so they presented him with the name of an honorable person from his country, so he asked who this is? They told him this is a clean person, so he said to them, no, no, it is useless, dirty him and bring him.”
Al-Rasheed has been an active contributor to the Kuwaiti human rights movement and has been highly effective in monitoring all violations against the civil and human rights of citizens, including the Bedoon community in Kuwait. He has consistently contributed to the sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), during which he spoke about the human rights situation in the country and the need for peaceful change to protect these rights. He uses his X account, which is topped by the following, “I love freedom and hate injustice, and my goal is to establish human rights as a civilized value,” to publish his personal views and promote human rights in Kuwait and abroad.
Upon his arrest, his colleagues, civil society organisations and citizens declared their solidarity with him and called for his immediate release using the hashtag: #Freedom_for_Anwar_Al-Rasheed. The next day, his lawyer Hani Hussain tweeted that Al-Rasheed had been released by the State Security apparatus. Some local sources confirmed to GCHR that he had been asked to sign a pledge before his release.
On 27th June 2024, Amnesty International reported that Kuwaiti authorities have been escalating the repression of critics throughout 2024, by prosecuting and imposing prison sentences on individuals, solely based on their speeches or writings, and stripping people of their nationality. Amnesty International notes that over the past six months, Kuwaiti authorities arbitrarily imprisoned at least seven people for publicly voicing their views and opinions, stripped Kuwaiti nationality from at least nine individuals, and prosecuted a parliamentary candidate for criticising the system of government. This wave of repression was accompanied by Emir Meshal Al Sabah’s decision on 10th May 2024 to dissolve the newly-elected parliament and suspend parliamentary government and elections for up to four years.