Kuwait authorities detain former lawmaker for tweets critical of Egypt News
Kuwait authorities detain former lawmaker for tweets critical of Egypt

[JURIST] Authorities in Kuwait on Wednesday ordered the 10-day detainment of former lawmaker Saleh al-Mullah [personal Twitter account] for tweets criticizing the Gulf country’s leader Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah [official website] and his support for Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Al-Mullah was detained [AP report] Tuesday and held overnight for questioning for tweets sent Monday while el-Sissi was in Kuwait for an official visit. In his tweets, al-Mullah criticized the Kuwaiti government’s significant financial support of the el-Sissi government, and also the government’s failure to counter the recent decrease in oil prices. According to his lawyer, al-Mullah denies the accusations and will request bail.

The use of the social networking site Twitter [corporate website] to criticize government organizations and leaders in the Middle East has led to numerous arrests and prosecutions. In October a court in Saudi Arabia sentenced [JURIST report] three lawyers to between five and eight years in prison for criticizing the justice system on Twitter by accusing authorities of carrying out arbitrary detentions. Also in October Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab [personal twitter account] was charged [JURIST report] with insulting the ministries of defense and interior over his tweets that alleged Bahrain’s security institutions were the first incubators for extremist ideology. In July Kuwait’s Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] a 10-year jail sentence for a man accused of posting tweets that insulted the Prophet Mohammed and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in Six Days' War

On November 22, 1967, the UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied during the Six Days' War, and for respect of the right of all States in the area to "live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries." Read Resolution 242, which remains a cornerstone of efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East.

President Kennedy assassinated, VP Lyndon Johnson sworn inin

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Later that day, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was later tasked with leading a commission to investigate the assassination. President Johnson received the final report of the Warren Commission on September 24, 1964. Read the Warren Commission Report.