Rashed’s comments came after the liberal Al-Jarida newspaper cited sources as saying yesterday that the government was planning to amend several articles in the constitution which has not undergone any amendment since it was issued in 1962. Al-Jarida said that one of the amendments was to increase the Assembly’s membership to between 60 and 75 from the current 50, making the appointment of the crown prince exclusively in the hands of HH the Amir and providing more protection to the prime minister against grillings.
The criminal court meanwhile sentenced a second opposition youth tweeter for two years in jail yesterday for allegedly insulting the Amir through his Twitter account. The sentence was issued against Ayyad Al- Harbi just a day after a similar verdict was issued against opposition tweeter Rashed Al-Enezi, also for the same reason. The court however acquitted Osama Al-Munawer, a member of the scrapped 2012 Assembly, from charges of abusing the Amir’s status through remarks he made at an opposition rally on Oct 13. All the verdicts are not final and must still go to the court of appeals and the court of cassation to become final, but the two tweeters will remain in jail throughout the period unless the court of appeals decides to free them. A large number of opposition activists and former MPs face trial on almost similar charges and the verdicts are expected within the next few weeks.
The criminal court meanwhile postponed until Feb 18 the next hearing in the case of the storming of the Assembly building in Nov 2011 in which 70 opposition activists including 11 former MPs face charges of illegally storming a public building and assaulting policemen.
The postponement came after defense lawyers insisted that the court must hear the testimony of around 20 witnesses who include former Assembly speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi, former opposition MP and deputy speaker of the scrapped Assembly Khaled Al- Sultan and others. In the meantime, the Progressive Movement strongly lashed out at the excessive use of force by the special forces against opposition demonstrators on Sunday night.
The movement said the regular use of repressive methods against protesters indicates to a plan involving a gradual coup against the constitution. It called for the immediate release of all detainees and called on opposition groups to launch a joint political program to confront the undemocratic attitude of the government and its oppressive security measures. Rights activists said that more than 70 demonstrators were arrested and that most of them were freed except 17 who remained in police custody until late yesterday.
