E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Yasser Al-Zayyat / AFP - Getty Images
Kuwait riot police used stun grenades and tear gas Wednesday to disperse thousands of angry demonstrators who marched on the central prison in Kuwait City, where a leading opposition figure was detained.
Kuwaiti authorities have decided to free a prominent opposition politician on bail after charging him with insulting the ruling emir, his lawyer said Thursday.
Although OPEC member Kuwait has avoided the kind of mass pro-democracy unrest seen in other Arab countries, tensions have mounted between the elected parliament and the government ahead of a December vote.
Musallam al-Barrak, an outspoken former member of parliament was picked up from his home Monday night, two weeks after a protest rally at which he made rare critical remarks directed at the emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
Protest broken up by police
Police in the major Gulf oil-producing state, where the government is dominated by the Al-Sabah family, used tear gas and smoke bombs on Wednesday to disperse protesters marching on a prison where Barrak was being held, witnesses said.
"He will be released in a few hours and they will tell us when the court will look into his case later on," lawyer Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem said, adding that the bail was set at 10,000 dinars ($35,545).
Yasser Al-Zayyat / AFP - Getty Images
Former Kuwaiti opposition MP Musallam al-Barrak (center) waves to supporters from a police van as he is arrested outside his house in Kuwait City Monday.
Prosecutors have charged Barrak with encroaching on the pillars of the Gulf state, insulting the emir and infringing his authorities.
Demonstrations about local issues often occur in Kuwait, a U.S. ally in the region, but violence has been rare. On Oct. 22, police used tear gas and baton charges to break up another demonstration, witnesses said.
Man arrested in Kuwait for insulting Prophet Mohammad on Twitter
On Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said security forces had scattered rioters who had blocked streets and assaulted police with stones and bottles, according to a statement carried by the state news agency KUNA.
It said members of special forces also were charged by drivers who tried to run them over, injuring five in two separate incidents. The ministry said it made some arrests and warned further protests would be dealt with harshly.
An activist estimates that 50,000 people gathered in Kuwait for protests over changes to the electoral law which the opposition has called a constitutional coup by the government. NBCNews.com's Katy Tur reports.
National unity
The Gulf Arab state has banned unregistered gatherings of more than 20 people on roads or in other public locations.
Kuwaiti opposition politicians, groups and their supporters plan a protest rally on Nov. 4 over changes to the election law which some have criticized as an attempt to give pro-government candidates an advantage in parliamentary elections on Dec. 1.
The government says the amendments were needed to preserve national unity.
The opposition politicians have said they will boycott the vote, the second this year. An opposition bloc, made up of Islamists, liberal and tribal lawmakers, won a majority at the last elections in February.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Analysis: Israel, Iran name checks illustrate America's twin obsessions
- Meet Afghan female rapper, colonel who defy the odds
- Analysis: Should next president treat Russia as friend or foe?
- China considers ending unpopular one-child policy
- Expert: Tourists threaten Sistine Chapel's famous paintings
- Oasis of tolerance or 'Republic of Shame'? Two faces of gay life in Beirut
- The secret to a perfect smile? Chopsticks, Chinese officials are told
- After decades of oppression, Kurds get taste of freedom in Syria
- Outrage after video shows Chinese teacher abusing kindergarteners
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
And why did we liberate this backwards country? Only for the oil and they still support government censorship and retaliation. The Emir of Kuwait actually prefers to bang camels from the rear. There is no way we would have done anything for this country if they did not have the oil. Disgusting and we need to change oil dependence to leave the middle east in the dust.
No matter what Muslim is in charge, freedom of speech and assembly will be denied in Islamic societies. Until they come into the 21st century and embrace human rights like freedom of speech , press , religion and equal rights for women , they will be mired in hostility , violence and intolerance.
Another Sunni Islamic hell hole responsible for mess of non-Muslims and Muslim minority sects like Shiites, Sufis, and tribes like Kurds and others.
It would have been better if we had not gone to Iraqi wars instead saving these seventh century, highly corrupt, bigoted, despotic rulers from Saddam!
Kuwaiti ruler had 65 wives at one time rotating with divorces every now and then.
Whom did NATO forces sacrificed their lives. The moment they liberated Kuwait, they fixed his golden toilet.
What did we get back from these ungrateful rulers?
During last stages of Iraqi wars, NATO forces wanted a little favor from the barbaric and beastly Kuwaiti despotic ruler. He refused it!
Followers of Islamic cult, especially Sunni Saudi and co inspired Islamic radicals and militants (al-Qaida, Salaffi, Wahhabi, MB, Taliban and other label ones), are fast marching backwards to their seventh century desert tribal days.
They are indulging in rapings, lootings, killings and genocides of non-Muslims (Darfur, S. Sudan, Nigeria and spreading like wild fire in many regions and Muslims (Libya, Yemen, Mali, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places).
Sunni Saudi backed Salaffi and MB new chapters are opening up in Egypt. Just watch the fate of Christians, women and Israel as the time goes by.
Even in Syria, if Assad is overthrown by Sunni Islamic religious Nazis like al-Qaida, MB, the conditions of Christians will be unbearable just like Iraq.
Pakis and Sunni Saudis and co are responsible for 80 percent of world problems including economic ones. Examine the devastations with Iraqi wars and now sanctions on Iranian oil and the resultant oil price manipulations.
They are making the lives of their own people also miserable by their Islamic religious madness to the intolerable levels.
There is no place on earth that still needs a single, all powerful ruler or family! That kind of 'government' is a throwback to the times when countries were taken over and ruled by force. Now it is important for people to be able to decide what government they want without being arrested for being dissenters.
Just like before each Iraqi wars, autocratic, highly corrupt and despotic bigoted Sunni Sunni Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Kuwaiti and Sunni oil rich nations are stage managing their dances and actions through oil companies, extremist Jewish lobbys, Christian right and their puppets in the US, Britain, EU and other nations on Syria and Iran.
In Syria, Syrian rebels are backed by a-Qaida and MB. In Egypt, Islamic fundamentalist Morsi is a front cover for the Sunni Islamic extremist Salaffi, MB and others.
With sanctions on Iranian oil, oil prices which was around $40 in 2009 has crossed $110 now.
If Iraqi wars gave us PIIGS, there will more nations added to PIIGS.
As austerity measures wind up all UN and its agencies and partisan and most worthless IMF and WB.
ME is not our business. Just keep miles away.
IRAQ WARS
Net results of Saudi, Kuwait, UAE, oil companies and their lobbyists directed 1991 and 2003 Iraqi wars are
WINNERS
1. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and other rich ME sharks became richer by manipulating oil prices too high.
2. Oil companies and their lobbyists also benefitted. Oil prices, which were hardly $30 a barrel before 1991, shot up to $140 a barrel.
3. Since 2003, future traders, rating agencies, Wall Street and oil companies and their lobbyists transferred five trillion dollars from oil importing countries to oil exporting nations.
4. Rich Sunni ME sharks (Saudi Arabia in particular) funded Salaffi and Wahhabi mosques and Islamic radicals and terrorists all over the world. These Sunni Islamic radicals and terrorists are rampaging all over the world. World’s 80 percent of problems are due to them.
LOSERS
1. General US and European nations’ public. There have been high unemployment, cut in welfare measures, housing market collapse and more miseries. Since 2001, US spent three trillion dollars on Iraq and Afghan wars. Did the Saudis and co foot the bill?
2. Poor soldiers killed and injured and their families. In Iraq and Afghan wars 6300 soldiers were killed and 40000 injured.
3. High budget deficits and heavier borrowing. Many nations (PIIGS) and people are on line to bankruptcy!
4. Iraq will plunge into bloody sectarian civil wars leading to the creation of Shiastan, Sunnistan and Kurdistan. Here the losses are of Iraqis.
That's just great and now everyone here he is, Mr. Conway Twitty.....
RFFN!!!