Bahrain Mirror: The Kuwaiti appeals court overruled on Sunday (February 5, 2017) a verdict issued by the first-instance court acquitting the Secretary General of the "Islamic Alliance", prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Hussein Al-Maatouk, and fined him 20.000 Kuwaiti Dinar, after convicting him of "circulating false information and violating the national unity".

Al-Maatouk is on trial based on a Friday sermon he delivered in the Imam Al-Hussein Mosque in which he criticized the Ministry of Interior and accused it of torturing suspects in "Al-Abdali cell", who were lately acquitted by the court of appeals.

The Public Prosecution had accused Sheikh Al-Maatouk of inciting sedition through a Friday sermon and violating the national unity through circulating false information that would undermine the state's prestige and doubt the jurisdiction and prosecutors.

Arabic Version