Kuwait Twitter 'insult' brings 2-year sentence

KUWAIT CITY // Kuwaiti media say a social media activist has been sentenced to two years in prison for a Twitter post deemed insulting to the nation's ruler.

Authorities across the Western-allied Gulf Arab states have sharply increased crackdowns on perceived dissent among bloggers and others using social media. The sentence passed Sunday in Kuwait is not the harshest in the region, but is likely to bring further denunciations from international rights groups.

Several websites, including the pro-government Al Watan newspaper, reported the sentence against 26-year-old Rashed Al Enezi, who was accused of insulting Kuwait's emir in a Twitter post.

In November, a poet in Qatar was sentenced to life in prison for an Arab Spring-inspired verse that officials claim insulted Qatar's emir and encouraged the overthrow of the nation's ruling system. He is appealing.