Kuwait's top court sentences opposition leader to prison

Musallam Al Barrack had left Kuwait before the sentencing

A Kuwaiti protester holds a banner reading "The people want an elected government" as another addresses fellow demonstrators outside the parliament building in Kuwait City late on June 10, 2011 during a rally demanding the resignation of the Gulf state's Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmed al-Sabah.
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Kuwait's top court sentenced an opposition leader and a number of politicians to three-and-a-half years in prison over the 2011 storming of parliament.

Musallam Al Barrack, an opposition leader who left prison in April 2017 after serving a two-year sentence on separate charges, was among the dozens of activists, sitting and former politicians sentenced by the Court of Cessation on Sunday.

The case involved a total of 70 defendants, who were initially acquitted in the years-long case until a November court decision resurrected the charges against them.

Al Barrack had left Kuwait before the sentencing.

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In 2011, Kuwait's then-prime minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al Sabah, faced allegations made by Al Barack and other opposition figures of corruption. Sheikh Nasser eventually resigned.

On November 16, 2011, protesters and opposition MPs stormed Kuwait’s parliament building demanding that Sheikh Nasser step down. Once inside, they occupied the main chamber and sang the national anthem before leaving a short time later.

The activists were initially charged after the storming of the parliament but a lower court in 2013 ruled they had no criminal intent during the incident. However, an appeals court ruling last November sentenced dozens of defendants to prison terms of as much as nine years.