Former Kuwaiti MP jailed for 'insulting emir'

A Kuwaiti court on Sunday sentenced prominent opposition figure and former MP Musallam al-Barrak to two years in prison over charges of insulting the Kuwaiti emir, a judicial source has said.

The charges levied against al-Barrak are related to a talk he gave titled “enough nonsense” during a seminar in October 2012.

In 2013, a preliminary court sentenced al-Barrak to five years in prison before an appellate court repealed the verdict a month later, ordering his release and retrial.

“We will appeal the verdict against al-Barrak tomorrow and urge the court to suspend the sentence,” Thamer Al Jadaei, al-Barrak’s lawyer, told the press on Sunday.

At a press conference following the verdict, al-Barrak said that he was not afraid of prison and that even if he is thrown in jail, his “thoughts remain free.”

“This is the destiny that I have chosen and the prison doesn’t frighten me,” al-Barrak said.

Al-Barrak, 58, is renowned for taking harsh stances during his time as a lawmaker against what he described as corruption phenomenon in the oil-rich country.

He also received the highest number of voter ballots in the history of the Kuwaiti parliamentary elections, garnering some 31,000 votes in the 2012 parliamentary polls, the results of which were annulled by the judiciary.