– The Arab Spring Just Got Serious Again – Kuwait Is Burning (ZeroHedge, July 3, 2014):
Same stuff… different country. Once again someone (former opposition leader Musallam al-Barrak) exposed the corruption among the elites (revealed documents that allegedly prove billions of illicit financial transfers were made to senior officials, including judges) and the leaders (Kuwait officials) decided he should be arrested and charged with slander. This has caused uproar among the people as hundreds of protesters rallied overnight in support of al-Barrack, marching from his house to the jail chanting: “The people want to cleanse the judiciary!” The police in the oil-rich nation of Kuwait used tear gas and stun grenades early Thursday to disperse the protesters.
As The Daily Star reports,
Kuwaiti police fired teargas and stun grenades to disperse an opposition rally demanding the release of prominent dissident Mussallam al-Barrak, activists said Thursday.
The public prosecutor Wednesday ordered Barrak, a former MP, to be held for 10 days after he was questioned for allegedly insulting the judiciary.
The court turned down Thursday a petition filed by Barrak’s lawyers to release him until his trial, defense lawyer Thamer al-Jadaei wrote on his Twitter account.
The court set a July 7 date to start hearing the case against Barrak, who is charged with insulting the supreme judicial council and slander against its chairman.
Soon after the court’s rejection, the opposition went into an emergency meeting to decide on further action.
Thousands of people gathered at Barrak’s residence southwest of Kuwait City Wednesday night and marched on the nearby jail where the former opposition leader was detained, the activists said.
Police intervened when hundreds of protesters reached the prison, firing teargas and stun grenades to disperse them. There were no reports of any casualties.
Smaller protests were also reportedly staged in other parts of the oil-rich Gulf state.
The opposition leader is accused of slandering and insulting the supreme judicial council and its chairman, Faisal al-Marshed, in remarks made at a public rally on June 10.
Opposition groups strongly criticized the legal action against him as unlawful and “politically motivated.”
At the rally, Barrak charged that former senior officials, including ruling family members, had stolen tens of billions of dollars from public funds and engaged in money laundering.
He also criticized the judiciary.
The scandal was later linked to claims that the same officials were seen in video footage plotting a coup.
Those allegations were made in a lawsuit filed last month by Sheikh Ahmad Fahad al-Sabah, a senior ruling family member and former energy minister.
Sabah is scheduled to be questioned Thursday by the public prosecutor as a witness.
Most opposition groups are not represented in parliament after having boycotted a July 2013 election in protest at Kuwait’s amended electoral law.
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As we have noted previously, uprising against government corruption is a global trend and in the case of Kuwait (which is oil-rich, the last friendly place to US in the Middle East, and has the highest per capita Twitter usage on the planet), we suspect this ‘spring’ is far from over.
Things do not look good…
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— ???????#???? (@cpt_meshari) July 3, 2014
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— ???? (@mosa_kuwait) July 4, 2014