Kuwait Court Jails Tweeter for Emir 'Insult'

Kuwait's appeals court ordered an opposition activist to jail on Thursday to start serving a two-year sentence handed down last year for tweets deemed offensive to the Gulf state's ruler.

The court upheld the lower court's verdict against Ayyad al-Harbi, a journalist with a local online bulletin, and ordered that the jail time start immediately, without waiting for any appeal to the supreme court.

Harbi's conviction came in January last year at the height of opposition-led protests against the government's unilateral amendment of the electoral law, which triggered an opposition boycott of a July general election.

Criticizing the emir is illegal in Kuwait and is considered a state security offense. Those convicted can face a jail sentence of up to five years.