Kuwait City: Kuwait has arrested the leader of the Islamist Ummah Party for allegedly insulting the neighbouring Gulf state of Saudi Arabia on television, the interior ministry said.
Hakeem Al Mutairi was arrested at the instruction of the public prosecutor for “grossly insulting Saudi Arabia” during an interview, the ministry said in a statement.
Al Mutairi is the head of the Ummah Party, a group of Islamist and conservative politicians founded in 2005 but still not officially recognised.
The group said Al Mutairi was arrested by the secret police on Friday and interrogated over remarks he made on television in December about the death of Mohammad Al Mufreh, the Ummah Party head in Saudi Arabia.
It said Al Mutairi raised questions that Al Mufreh may have died from poisoning at a hospital in Turkey.
In recent months, Kuwait cracked down on online activists for criticising Arab leaders, especially Gulf states and Egypt.
Authorities detained and questioned several activists and former MPs for “insulting” Egyptian, Saudi and Emirati leaders.