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KUWAIT CITY – A Kuwaiti lawyer says the country’s supreme court has upheld a verdict against an online journalist sentenced to two years in prison for Twitter posts deemed insulting to the Gulf nation’s ruler.
Ayyad al-Harbi was arrested in 2012 as part of a social media crackdown throughout the Gulf aimed at quelling perceived political dissent in the wake of the Arab Spring unrest.
One of his tweets included a line from a poem by an Iraqi poet that criticizes dictators — a step seen as a reference to the ruler of Kuwait. An appeals court upheld the verdict last year.
Lawyer Mohammed al-Humaidi said Sunday’s decision means “game over” for his client, barring a pardon by the emir.