July 9, 2021
Jamal al-Sayer, a well-known poet in Kuwait, has been arrested on charges of insulting the Gulf country’s leader and tweeting “fake news,” his family told news outlets.
Sayer’s nephew and attorney, Muhannad al-Sayer, told Reuters that the poet was detained on charges of "insulting the emir, spreading fake news that could harm the state's image and misusing his mobile phone.”
The Gulf Center for Human Rights reported that security forces raided Jamal al-Sayer’s house Monday night after he addressed state corruption in poems that he published online.
In a statement, the rights organization condemned the public prosecution's use of its powers “in a flagrant and arbitrary manner against a citizen who did not violate the law, but rather expressed his views in a civilized and peaceful manner, and whose aim was to see an end to corruption in his country.”