International
human rights charity Amnesty International has condemned a proposed legal
amendment in Kuwait which would make blasphemy a crime punishable by death.
The Gulf state’s parliament last week voted in favour of the new law,
which was brought to the table after a man was arrested for insulting the
Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) on social-networking website Twitter.
The bill
currently remains in draft form and is still subject to a second and final
vote. It also needs to win final approval from Kuwait’s ruler Sheikh Sabah
al-Ahmad al-Sabah before becoming law.
“We urge
Kuwait’s parliament to reject such an amendment which would constitute a
flagrant breach of the country’s international human rights obligations,” said
Ann Harrison, deputy director of Amnesty International’s MENA programme.
“All eyes
are on Kuwait’s recently elected legislators. They must immediately scrap any
plans to introduce the death penalty for blasphemy.”
Hamad
al-Naqi, a member of Kuwait’s Shi’a Muslim minority, is being held in pre-trial
detention after being charged with “defaming the Prophet” in comments made on
his Twitter page.
Authorities
also claim to have evidence that he supported pro-democracy demonstrations in
Bahrain.
Al-Naqi has
denied posting the tweets, saying somebody hacked into his account.
Existing
laws on blasphemy in Kuwait are set out in Article 111 of the Penal Code, which
prohibits defamation of religion. The offence has been punishable since 1961,
but so far only carried up to one year’s imprisonment and a fine.
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