KUWAIT: The public prosecution issued a directive to all exit borders to execute an arrest warrant issued nearly a week ago for MP Abdul Hameed Dashti on arrival to Kuwait, Al-Jarida daily reported.

Dashti faces charges of slander, filed against him by Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and the judges in the Abdali cell case. Notably, Bahrain’s Public Prosecution had issued a directive including an Interpol arrest warrant against Dashti. Commenting on the arrest warrant issued by the Public Prosecutor, Dashti, who remains abroad, stressed that such a measure was unprecedented.

He said that the Public Prosecution had dealt with him differently in three previous cases. “Things are obviously different this time and the Public Prosecution made a decision to summon a lawmaker over opinion-related issues,” Dashti added, describing what happened as an unprecedented disaster for civil liberties in Kuwait.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary legislative and legal affairs committee agreed to lift Dashti’s immunity upon the public prosecution request, said informed sources. The sources explained that Kuwait cannot execute the prison verdict passed on Dashti by a Bahraini court because Riyadh Legal Agreement was only restricted to judicial cooperation without including verdict executions. Kuwait has witnessed a dramatic decline in free speech and civil liberties in the last few years. Several activists, journalists and politicians had their citizenship revoked or been jailed for political dissent.