ShareKUWAIT: The criminal court yesterday acquitted former liberal MP Saleh Al-Mulla of charges of insulting HH the Amir and damaging Kuwait-Egyptian relations through a number of tweets.
Mulla was detained for several days and charged with insulting HH the Amir and undermining diplomatic ties between Kuwait and Egypt earlier this year ahead of an official visit of Egyptian President Abdulfattah Al-Sisi.
Mulla wrote several comments on his Twitter account rejecting any new Kuwaiti aid to Egypt saying that all Kuwaitis rejected the same. The former lawmaker was arrested and detained for five days before he was released on a KD 2,000 bail pending trial. The ruling is not final as it can still be challenged by the prosecution before the appeals court.
In another development, 10 web-based newsletters yesterday rejected the proposed electronic crimes draft law and called for amending the draft law before sending it to the National Assembly for approval.
In a joint statement, 10 web-based bulletins called on the ministry to amend its proposed law to make it applicable only to electronic news sites without restricting the freedom of establishing personal, commercial or services websites which cannot be classified as news sites.
The statement added that the regulation of the electronic news sites through legislation based on professional and constitutional principles will help develop this key sector, adding that they intend to submit a draft law to the information ministry.
The information ministry has announced that it will submit the draft law to the National Assembly for approval in the current term which opened last week.
MP Faisal Al-Shaye who was elected head of the Assembly's financial and economic affairs committee, said yesterday that the committee will announce the date of a key meeting with the government to discuss its plans for dealing with the budget deficit.
The lawmaker said the meeting will include the financial committee, the Assembly's budgets committee and the finance ministry. The meeting aims at studying measures the government plans to adopt to deal with the budget deficit.
Shaye meanwhile sent a series of questions to the minister of sports and youth Sheikh Salman Al-Humoud Al-Sabah about reports that some sports clubs refused to allow members to register.
He asked about the measures that the ministry had taken against such sports clubs and whether the ministry will reserve the rights of people to register later.
MP Abdullah Maayouf said yesterday that he was elected head of the Assembly's sports committee and MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji as the rapporteur. Maayouf said the committee plans to take all the measures necessary to defend the Kuwaiti sports amid a total suspension by the International Olympic Committee under the pretext that Kuwaiti laws do not conform to the Olympic charter. Maayouf said that the committee will shoulder its responsibilities in pointing to those who caused the suspension and are attempting to undermine the country's image abroad.
By B Izzak
