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New York, May 19, 2010—Kuwaiti authorities should immediately release freelance opposition journalist Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem, who has been detained since Sunday on charges of “instigating to overthrow the regime,” “slight to the personage of the emir” and “instigating to dismantle the foundations of Kuwaiti society,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Al-Jassem is facing multiple charges in five other complaints and was sentenced to jail in another case in April.
Security officers began questioning al-Jassem on May 11
about articles he has published, going back to a 2006 story critical of the
ruling family and Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Jaber al-Sabah,
according to the journalist’s lawyer, Abdullah al-Ahmad, and local news reports.
Al-Jassem went on a hunger strike on May 12 to protest the interrogations but his
health deteriorated two days later and he was taken to a military hospital where
he ended the strike, al-Ahmad told CPJ. He was transferred to
“Prosecutors have resorted to digging up a four-year-old
article in an attempt to silence Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem because of his
critical reporting,” said
On March 7, a criminal court in Kuwait City fined
al-Jassem 3,000 dinars (US$10,500) for an article in the independent
daily Alam Al-Youm in which he alleged that media
outlets backed by the prime minister had been stoking tensions between the
country’s Sunni and Shiite communities. On April 1, a criminal court in
Al-Jassem is facing five other complaints brought by the prime minister and the information minister in connection with articles critical of the government that were published in local newspapers and on the journalist’s political blog, his lawyer told CPJ.
Al-Ahmad called the charges against his client “vindictive.”
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