Kuwait court frees prominent opposition figure on bail-lawyer
Reuters
Published Jul 07, 2014 09:57AM ET
Kuwait court frees prominent opposition figure on bail-lawyer
KUWAIT (Reuters) - A prominent Kuwaiti opposition politician whose detention last week set off a wave of sometimes violent protests in the oil-rich Gulf Arab state was freed on bail on Monday, his lawyer said.
Musallam al-Barrak, who had been detained for questioning after allegedly insulting Kuwait's judiciary, has long been at loggerheads with the authorities over changes made in 2012 to an election law which he and other opposition politicians said were intended to prevent them taking power.
One of Barrak's lawyers, Mohammed Abdel-Kader al-Jassim, said a Kuwaiti court on Monday had ordered the former lawmaker be freed on payment of a 5,000-dinar ($17,700) bail and delayed his case until September.
Police used smoke bombs late on Sunday to disperse hundreds of Barrak's supporters as they tried to march from the Grand Mosque to the main court complex in Kuwait City to demand his release. The police said the demonstrators had failed to obtain a license for their march.
Unrest flared in 2012 after the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, changed the electoral law before a parliamentary election in December that year.
Barrak and other opposition groups said the move was intended to deny them a majority, and they boycotted the poll.
($1 = 0.2819 Kuwaiti dinars)
(Reporting by Mahmoud Harby; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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Written By: Reuters
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