KUWAIT: The appeals court yesterday jailed alleged "Fintas Group" members Sheikh Athbi Al-Fahd Al-Sabah and Sheikh Ahmad Al-Dawood Al-Sabah and lawyers Falah Al-Hajraf and Abdelmohsen Al-Ateeqi, and decided to resume their trial on July 20. Suspect Hamad Al-Haroun was sentenced to 10 years in jail, while Ateeqi, Hajraf, Sheikh Khalifa Al-Ali Al-Sabah, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Dawood and Sheikh Athbi Al-Fahd were sentenced for five years.

The convictions came after the suspects were accused of spreading false news and rumors by faking and publishing a video clip on social media and YouTube claiming that the head of the constitutional court Yousuf Al-Mutawa received bribes in an attempt to shake confidence in the judiciary, in addition to insulting other judges.

The court also sentenced suspect Saud Al-Asfour for one year for insulting Mutawa through Twitter with the fake video clip. It exonerated suspects Yousuf Al-Essa, Fawaz Al-Abdullah, Ahmad Al-Enezi, Mohammad Al-Jassim, Mushari Buyabes and Jarrah Al-Thafiri over insulting HH the Amir on WhatsApp because it is a private medium, but noticed that their posts talked about the Amir disrespectfully, which is against the most basic of ethics.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi