Kuwait grants dozens of activists bail years after parliament storming

A Kuwaiti judge has ordered dozens of politicians, activists and others imprisoned over protesters storming parliament in 2011 to be freed on bail pending their appeal before the country's highest court.

The order, issued on Sunday by Court of Cassation Judge Saleh al-Muraished frees 44 defendants in the case. Another 25 have been at large since the shock order in November ordering them to be imprisoned after earlier being acquitted.

The 44 defendants had been imprisoned for 84 days.

Al-Muraished set the next hearing in the case for March 4.

The sentences date back to when Arab Spring protesters stormed Kuwait's parliament in 2011.

The protesters briefly entered parliament's chambers amid attempts by opposition lawmakers to bring the prime minister for questioning over allegations that officials had embezzled government funds.

While Kuwait  uses less violence on protestors in comparison to its GCC neighbours like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, harsh censorship laws remain in place.

Earlier this month a blogger was sentenced to five years in prison in the Emirdom over “insulting” the United Arab Emirates in a post over the weekend.

Blogger, Abdullah al-Saleh was sentenced to five years for criticising the UAE and its increasingly abrasive role in the region.

Along with other sentences, al-Saleh’s prison time has piled up to 31 years in prison.

His recent sentencing comes a month after he was sentenced, for also five years, after criticising Saudi Arabia, and the Riyadh-led boycott of Qatar.

Al-Saleh is a vocal social media critic of the Riyadh and Abu Dhabi regimes, saying recently if it wasn’t for the strength of the Kuwaiti Dinar, Saudi Arabia would have intervened in Kuwait the way it intervened in Bahrain.