Urgent Action: KUWAITI BIDUN ACTIVIST SENTENCED ON APPEAL (Kuwait 7.24)

On January 31, 2024, a Kuwaiti Court of Appeal convicted and sentenced Mohammad al-Barghash, a defender of the rights of the stateless Bidun community in Kuwait, to three years in prison on charges that include “spreading false news” after he conducted an interview with a foreign broadcasting channel discussing the Bidun situation. A court of first instance had acquitted him on October 25, 2023, but the prosecution appealed the verdict.

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• Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to one or both government officials listed. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.
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sample letter:

Your Excellency, 

I am alarmed by the news that on January 31, 2024, an Appeals Court convicted and sentenced to three years Mohammad al-Barghash, 52, the Head of the National Bloc of Kuwaiti Bidun, solely for speaking out about the plight of the stateless Bidun community in Kuwait during an interview he gave on August 12, 2023 to Nabaa TV, a Saudi opposition channel broadcasting from Lebanon. Mohammad was ordered to turn himself in.

On September 3, 2023, plain clothed officers from the State Security Agency detained Mohammad al-Bargash at his workplace, an electronics shop in al-Sulaibiya in Jahra Governorate, without an arrest warrant. He was held in pre-trial detention in contravention of article 69 of the Kuwaiti Code of Criminal Procedures, which stipulates that “in all cases, provisions of pretrial detention do not apply to anyone who exercises his right to express and publish his opinion verbally, in writing, drawing, or otherwise, including if the expression of opinion is via the media or social media”.

On October 25, 2023, a criminal court acquitted Mohammad al-Barghash, and he was released after spending over seven weeks in detention. However, the prosecution appealed the decision.  

I urge you to immediately and unconditionally drop the charges against Mohammad al-Barghash, as they are based solely on his expression of his opinion and quash his conviction and sentence. 

Yours sincerely, 

[YOUR NAME]

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