Kuwaiti opposition leader granted bail in insult case

KUWAIT: A prominent Kuwaiti opposition politician convicted of insulting the emir was granted bail yesterday, his lawyer said, prompting celebrations by supporters packing the court building and defusing tensions in the Gulf state.
Kuwait has avoided a mass Arab Spring-style uprising but unrest flared last year after the emir changed the electoral law before a parliamentary election. The opposition boycotted the Dec. 1 election.
Musallam Al-Barrak, an outspoken former member of Parliament, was accorded bail from his sentencing to five years in jail last week for remarks made at a rally last year.
The jail sentence triggered a series of street protests that underscored increasing friction between opposition figures and the government, headed by a prime minister picked by the emir.
“Today the popular movement had a victory, today the people had a victory and tomorrow the constitution will have a victory,” Barrak told a crowd awaiting him outside the heavily guarded court in the burning midday sun after the hearing.
“Today I see that the popular movement will achieve its goals,” he said, smiling and looking calm, after chanting supporters hoisted him on their shoulders and carried him through the court gates.
Hundreds of Barrak’s backers crammed into the court building after the ruling, cheering, whistling and chanting: “The people want Musallam Al-Barrak,” and “God is great”. “(This) will ease tension,” former opposition lawmaker Khaled Al-Tahous said outside the court building where police and national guard members watched the jubilation of Barrak’s faithful.
His five-year sentence was not overturned on Monday, defence lawyer Dokki Al-Hasban said.
But the court ruled that Barrak should be granted bail, on a payment of 5,000 dinars ($17,600), and that his defense team would have a chance to argue his case next month.
His defense had argued that last week’s verdict was invalid because they had not been allowed to call witnesses.
Barrak, a populist politician who draws support from some of Kuwait’s powerful tribes, was not taken into custody after his sentencing.
Security forces had searched his guesthouse and a neighboring home last week but failed to find him, supporters said. It was not clear why police had not taken him into custody during subsequent speeches at the guesthouse.
Barrak, who has emerged as a quasi-opposition leader in a country were political parties are banned, was found guilty of insulting Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah in a speech in October last year in which he urged the emir to avoid “autocratic rule.”