UAE presses charges against ex-Kuwaiti MP

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) attorney general on Sunday has pressed charges of “insulting” UAE officials against a former Kuwaiti MP and a leading member of a Muslim Brotherhood-linked group.

UAE Attorney General Salem Kubaish has referred Mubarak al-Duwailah – a former Kuwaiti MP – to Union Supreme Court for accusing the country of hostility towards Sunni Islam, UAE’s official press agency reported.

Kubaish said that al-Duwailah was charged after investigations revealed that he “exploited religion to promote ideas that sow sedition, harm national unity and social peace by disseminating false news.”

The top prosecutor said the charges were related to an interview aired on Kuwait’s Al-Majlis TV, during which al-Duwailah falsely claimed that the UAE is “hostile towards Sunni Islam.”

The attorney general went on to note that al-Duwailah – a member of the Brotherhood-linked Islamic Constitutional Movement – had publicly disrespected the UAE’s judiciary.

Al-Duwailah had earlier said the he was barred from entering the UAE, a fierce opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Last December, Kuwait’s prosecution authorities ordered the arrest of al-Duwailah, one day after the country’s foreign ministry filed a complaint to the prosecution accusing him of insulting Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

But al-Duwailah was released a day later on a 5,000 Kuwaiti dinar bail (roughly $14,600).

During his interview in mid-December, al-Duwailah wondered why Mohammed “is fiercely fighting Sunni Islam,” adding that the he “has sown hate towards the Muslim Brotherhood and every Sunni Muslim.”