A criminal court in Kuwait City sentenced al-Jassem to one year in prison on defamation charges stemming from an article published on his blog, Al-Mizan, which criticized Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah for allowing Iran to exert undue influence on Kuwait.
Al-Jassem continued to face 17 other charges in late year, including defamation, insulting the emir, and “instigating the overthrow of the regime,” his lawyer, Abdullah al-Ahmad, told CPJ.