KUWAIT CITY // A Kuwaiti court yesterday ordered a Shiite man accused of insulting the royal families of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia on Twitter to be released from prison while finding him guilty of contempt of religion.
Nasser Abul, 26, was found innocent of a charge related to threatening "state security", an offence that can carry a lengthy prison sentence.
However, Mr Abul was found guilty of contempt of religion and sentenced to three months in jail. Because Mr Abul has spent 111 days in custody since his arrest, his family were expecting him to be released from prison last night.
"He will be free today; this is a victory for freedom of speech," said Mr Abul's brother, Hassan Al Shirazi, 20, one of about 20 family members and supporters in court.
Mr Al Shirazi said when his brother is released he will take him home to "clean him up" before they attend a welcome-home gathering with family and friends at his lawyer's diwaniyah, the Kuwaiti equivalent of a Majlis.
Posts that appeared on Mr Abul's Twitter account in May called the Saudi king scum and compared Bahrain's royal family to Jews and pigs. Another tweet said that a Salafi - a member of a conservative branch of Sunni Islam common in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia - is "a Jew and impure".
Mr Abul's lawyer had argued in court that his client's Twitter account had been infiltrated by hackers.
One of the detained man's supporters, Jaffar Ameer, speaking outside the court, said: "We don't agree with the second part of the judgement," referring to the three-month sentence for insulting Salafis. Mr Ameer argued that Salafism is a political rather than religious movement.
"The court accepted Salafism as a religion, so you cannot talk about them, you cannot say anything," Mr Ameer added.
The tweets were posted at a time of heightened sectarian tension in the Gulf after Bahrain's Sunni royal family cracked down on protests led by the country's Shiite majority.
While the majority of Kuwaitis are Sunni, between 15 and 30 per cent are Shiite.
Mr Abul was pictured on a Facebook page set up by his reporters at a demonstration in Kuwait to show support for the Bahraini opposition before his arrest in June.
Some Shiites claim that Saudi Arabia, which sent troops into Bahrain to help contain the anti-government protests, is wielding its influence in Kuwait through Sunni tribes with cross-border connections. They believe the Saudi government put pressure on the Kuwaitis to detain Mr Abul when the comments appeared online.
The case attracted international attention. Amnesty international said the posts did not advocate "violence, racism or racial hatred" and described Mr Abul as "a prisoner of conscience".
Twitter has quickly grown in popularity in Kuwait, which is home to the Arabian Peninsula's most influential parliament and a vibrant and critical press. The growth in the use of social media has recently led to a wave of court cases.
On Sunday, the hard-line Sunni activist Mubarak Al Bathali was sentenced to three months in prison for remarks made on Twitter that the court considered offensive to Shiites.
jcalderwood@thenational.ae
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Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day - 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227 for four at the close.
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Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
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Rating: 3/5
Directors: Ramin Bahrani, Debbie Allen, Hanelle Culpepper, Guillermo Navarro
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Rating: 3/5
SNAPSHOT
While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
