After being the center of controversy for more than a year now, Kuwaiti MP Abdul-Hamid Dashti has received a sentence of 11 years and six months in prison for insulting Saudi Arabia. Dashti also received a separate three year sentence for insulting Bahrain.
The MP was sentenced in absentia and the ruling is subject to appeal.
The lawmaker was also convicted for putting Kuwait's diplomatic ties with the two Gulf countries at risk and for defaming Kuwait's judiciary.
Dashti took to Twitter to express his thoughts and frustration over the sentence.
*There is no text in Kuwaiti law criminalizing the abuse of a state, however there is a constitutional court ruling that says: voicing one's opinion about a state is not a crime*
Many have taken their thoughts to Twitter under the hashtag #WeAreAllDashti ( كلنا_دشتي ) to express their thoughts on the lawmaker's sentence. Many have expressed their thoughts under different variations of the hashtag.
In January 2015, Kuwait's Parliament voted to lift Dashti's immunity for tweets that were deemed offensive to Bahrain. Saudi Ambassador Abdul-Aziz Al Fayez then presented a memorandum to the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry after the lawmaker appeared on a pro-Syrian regime TV channel, accusing the kingdom of sponsoring terrorism.
Dashti was stripped off his parliamentary immunity in March this year, according to Gulf News .
Under Kuwaiti law, any individual convicted of a hostile act against a foreign country that puts Kuwait at risk of war may be jailed up to three years, according to Gulf News .