Human Rights Watch called on the Kuwaiti government to repeal laws unduly restricting freedom of expression.
"Bad laws make for bad court rulings," said Hanny Megally, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division. "The space for free expression is in danger of disappearing entirely unless the government acts quickly."
The appeals court upheld an earlier ruling that found prize-winning novelist and short story writer Laila al-`Othman's book, "The Departure," to be immoral but dropped the two month prison sentence against al-Othman and instead fined her, and her publisher Yahiya al-Rubay`an, 1000 KD (US$3260) each for immorality. The court also overturned the two month prison sentence against Kuwait University philosophy professor Dr. `Aliya Shu`ayb for defaming religion and instead fined Shu`ayb and al-Rubay`an 100 KD (US$326) each for publishing Shu`ayb's collection of Arabic poetry, "Spiders Bemoan a Wound," without a permit. Both books were also banned, although publication and distribution of "The Departure" had been legal in Kuwait since 1984. The court's ruling is final.
The ruling is the most recent in a series of cases brought by Kuwaiti religious conservatives against journalists, writers, and academics. In October 1999 an appeal court upheld a one month prison sentence against the chair of the Kuwait University political science department, Dr. Ahmad al-Baghdadi. That court found that Dr. al-Baghdadi's comments in a student newspaper belittled religion by contending that the prophet Mohammad had failed to convert non-believers during his time in Mecca. Dr. al-Baghdadi was later pardoned after his health deteriorated in prison.
As in earlier cases, the court relied on the use of vaguely worded articles in Kuwait's Penal Code and Press Law that allow for sentences of up to three years in prison and a 3,000 KD fine (US$9,780) for inciting "immoral acts" and up to one year in prison and a 1,000 KD fine (US$3,260) for disseminating "opinions that include sarcasm, contempt, or belittling of a religion or a religious school of thought, whether by defamation of its belief system or its traditions or its rituals or its instructions."
Vaguely-worded provisions unduly infringe upon the rights to free expression in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 19 of the ICCPR guarantees all individuals the "freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media." Kuwait acceded to the ICCPR on May 21, 1996.
Human Rights Watch called on the Kuwaiti government to take immediate action to repeal all articles in Kuwait law that contravene international human rights law as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
