Kuwaiti MP sentenced to jail for insulting Saudi Arabia

A Kuwaiti Shia MP has been sentenced to 14 years and six months in jail for offending fellow Gulf states Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Abdulhameed Dashti has been living overseas for the past four months, and was sentenced in absentia after being found guilty of endangering Kuwait's diplomatic ties with the two countries.

The lawmaker was given a 11 years and six months sentence for insulting Saudi Arabia and three years for insulting Bahrain in another case.

Dashti, a strong supporter of Iran and the Syrian regime, had told parliament that he was undergoing medical treatment in the UK.

The lawmaker still faces several similar cases and if convicted could receive additional jail terms.

Dashti has been a vocal critic of the Sunni royal families of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

He denounced the 2011 Saudi-led military intervention in Bahrain to support the government against Shia-led protests as an "invasion".

In May 2015, Dashti filed a request to question the Kuwaiti foreign minister over the country's participation in the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen's Houthi rebels.

There are just nine Shia MPs in Kuwait's 50-seat parliament with the community contributing between 30 to 40 percent of the Gulf state's population, according to the US State Department.