Amnesty International Report 2016/17 — Kuwait (events of 2016)

Background: a law lowering the age of minors from 18 to 16, approved on 31 December 2015, would on entry into force in January 2017 mean that those arrested at 16 or 17 could be tried as adults and in some cases face the death penalty. The UN Committee against Torture expressed concern at proposals to double police custody before judicial oversight to four days and to extend remand to 21 days.

Expression and assembly: a cybercrime law in force from January 2016 penalised 'peaceful criticism of the government, the judiciary and others with up to 10 years' imprisonment'; an electronic media law required all online publications, including social media and blogs, to obtain a licence; from June a confirmed conviction for insulting God, the prophets or the Emir barred candidacy for parliament. Opposition MP Abdulhamid Dashti was stripped of immunity and faced prison sentences totalling over 40 years; Musallam al-Barrak continued serving two years; Bidun activist Abdulhakim al-Fadhli's one-year sentence 'followed by expulsion from Kuwait' for a peaceful 'illegal gathering' was confirmed.

Counter-terrorism: in the Imam Sadiq mosque bombing case the Court of Cassation 'failed to exclude statements that were alleged to have been extracted under torture'; in the case of 26 defendants charged with 'spying for Iran and Hizbullah', some alleged torture to coerce confessions and 'the Court failed to investigate their allegations'. The DNA law came into force in July, with penalties of up to one year or KD10,000 for non-compliance.

Deprivation of nationality: in April the Administrative Cassation Court rejected a ruling that former MP Abdullah al-Barghash's challenge to the removal of his nationality was outside its jurisdiction; in December the Cassation Court rejected his appeal.

Bidun and women: more than 100,000 Bidun remained stateless; parliament approved a draft law to grant citizenship to up to 4,000 Bidun, not enacted by year-end; Comoros said it would consider 'economic citizenship' for Bidun on an official Kuwaiti request. A parliamentary committee approved an amendment allowing Kuwaiti women to pass nationality to their children, not enacted by year-end.

USE IN A REPORT: a second, independent annual account for 2016, particularly on the treatment of torture allegations in terrorism trials and on the combination of prison and expulsion imposed on a Bidun activist.

For criminal-justice and asylum practitioners: the most probative findings are that courts in two major terrorism trials failed to exclude or investigate evidence alleged to have been obtained by torture — directly relevant to fair-trial and article 3 arguments — and the imposition of expulsion on a stateless Bidun activist for peaceful assembly. For nationality lawyers, the al-Barghash litigation traces the courts' uncertain jurisdiction over revocation decisions in 2016. Amnesty is an advocacy organisation; its findings carry most weight when corroborated by the US State Department's report for the same year, also on this Dossier.