Sager al-Hashash was given two years in jail with immediate effect while Nasser al-Deehani was handed a 20-month term but was asked to pay 200 dinars ($ 700) to suspend it, lawyer Khaled al-Humoud wrote on his own Twitter account.
The opposition slammed the verdict as politically motivated.
“It is clear that the series of political verdicts is still going on,” prominent opposition leader and former MP Mussallam al-Barrak, himself on trial on similar charges, said on his Twitter account.
Rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders yesterday expressed concern over a complaint filed by the Kuwaiti information ministry against two announcers with pro-opposition Al Youm television for reading an opposition statement.
It said that Rima al-Baghdadi and Ahmad al-Enezi are on trial and face up to five years in prison on charges of “attacking the emir’s honour and authority and insulting the emirate’s tradition values.”
The next hearing is on April 10.
