October 5, 1999
His Highness Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah
Emir of the State of Kuwait
Al-Diwan al-Amiri
Al-Safat
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Your Highness,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-governmental organization of journalists devoted to upholding press freedom worldwide, is writing to protest in the strongest terms the conviction and imprisonment of Dr. Ahmad Baghdadi, head of the political science department at Kuwait University and a regular contributor to the daily newspaper Al-Siyassa.
On October 4, a Kuwaiti appellate court sentenced Baghdadi to one month in prison for allegedly defaming Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. The charge stemmed from a 1996 article that he wrote for the Kuwait University student magazine Al-Shoula.In the article, Baghdadi stated that the Prophet Muhammad had initially failed in his mission to convert non-believers to Islam while in Mecca but was eventually successful in Medina. The legal suit was reportedly filed by the imam of a Kuwaiti mosque.
According to Kuwaiti journalists, Baghdadi was arrested from his home today and taken to Talha Prison to begin serving his sentence.
This is only the most recent instance of a Kuwaiti journalist sentenced to prison for the legitimate exercise of the internationally recognized right to free expression. In June 1998, a Kuwaiti court convicted Muhammad Jasim al-Saqr, the former editor-in-chief of the leading daily newspaper Al-Qabas,and sentenced him to six months in prison for printing a four-line joke in the newspaper. The Ministry of Information, which initiated the case, charged that the joke was blasphemous. However, an appellate court overturned the sentence in January, sparing al-Saqr from prison.
CPJ views such cases as flagrant violations of the internationally guaranteed right to freedom of expression. They can only have a chilling effect on the ability of Kuwaiti journalists to carry out their professional duty to report news and opinion without fear of state reprisal.
The Committee to Protect Journalists respectfully calls on Your Highness to use your power of amnesty to order Dr. Baghdadi’s immediate release from prison. We further call on you to assume a leadership role in advocating comprehensive reform of Kuwaiti law, in particular the press and publications law, which still restricts the right of journalists to practice their profession freely.
I thank you for your attention to this most important matter and look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
Join CPJ in Protesting Attacks on the Press in Kuwait
Send a letter to:
His Highness Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah
Emir of the State of Kuwait
Al-Diwan al-Amiri
Al-Safat
Kuwait City, Kuwait