KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s lower court on Thursday sentenced an online activist to four years in prison for insulting judges on Twitter, according to the court ruling and activists.

Ahmad Fadhel was charged with writing comments on Twitter deemed offensive to a number of judges, who then sued him.

The verdict is not final as it can still be challenged in the court of appeals and supreme court.

The oil-rich Gulf state has sentenced dozens of tweeters to jail terms, mainly for insulting the country’s ruler. Dozens of others are still waiting trial on similar charges.

In September, a Kuwaiti court sentenced a Sunni Islamist activist to three years in jail for posting remarks deemed derogatory to the country’s Shia minority on his Twitter account.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2014