[JURIST] Kuwait’s supreme court on Monday ordered the release on bail of former opposition leader Musallam al-Barrak [Gulf News profile], accused of insulting the country’s leader. Al-Barrak has a hearing scheduled for May 18 [AP report] in which the court will render a final judgment on his charges. Bail was set at 1,000 dinars (USD $3,310). Al-Barrak was arrested [JURIST report] in 2012 after a public speech was found to contain remarks detrimental to the “social and political balance of the country.” The remarks came during a boycott movement led by al-Barrak against a controversial election law that the opposition claims is illegal and will establish a rubber stamp parliament.

Throughout the years the Kuwaiti government has been criticized for restricting rights to assembly and for prohibitions of free speech in the country. Last month Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported that riot police in Kuwait disbanded protests arresting 16 protesters [JURIST report] who may be charged with attacking law enforcement officers and illegal gathering. In January Nabil al-Fadhl, a member of the Kuwait parliament, was charged with insulting [JURIST report] the honor of Kuwaiti society and history after making a comment in support of the legalized sale of alcohol. Also in January Kuwaiti authorities ordered the 10-day detainment of former lawmaker Saleh al-Mullah [personal Twitter account, in Arabic] for tweets criticizing [JURIST report] the Gulf country’s leader Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah [official website] and his support for Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Later that month a Kuwaiti appeals court upheld [JURIST report] a lower court ruling that sentenced a man to five years in prison for posting comments about the Gulf nation’s ruler on Twitter. A court in Kuwait last October convicted [JURIST report] 13 people of challenging the country’s ruler by reciting a speech by al-Barrak. In July 2013 Kuwait’s Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] a 10-year prison sentence for a man accused of posting Tweets insulting the Prophet Mohammed and the Sunni Muslim [BBC backgrounders] rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.