On January 9, Abdullah Fairouz Abdulla Abd al-Kareen was arrested for posting comments on Twitter that, according to the government of Kuwait, were offensive to the Emir of Kuwait. His sentence was decided by a lower court: five years of jail time and deportation. Even though is being deported, though, he has the right to be a Kuwaiti citizenship. The Human Rights Watch comments, "Since a political crisis in June 2012, Kuwaiti authorities have ramped up efforts to limit free expression..."
This is one of those times when one stops and thinks, "I'm glad I live in the U.S." It really stinks that there are countries in which people don't have rights to free speech. People in the rest of the world are disgusted by this act of the Kuwaiti government, but, according to this article, this has happened at least 18 people since June 2012. This makes me think that we have to be on our watch for things like this, so that the U.S. doesn't end up like Kuwait.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hrw-slams-kuwaiti-jail-deportation-online-activist-003856367.html
Hopefully the Kuwaiti people realize that they need to be more careful, but hopefully the strict free speech laws are lifted.
ReplyDelete